30/10/2025
𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗠𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗦𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗠𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗕𝗮𝗯𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗯𝗮-𝗧𝘀𝗲𝗸𝗮
In the misty mornings of Ha-Shoaepane village, deep in the rugged mountains of Thaba-Tseka in Lesotho, ‘Manthabeleng Mokone ties her shawl tightly around her waist and steps out into the biting cold. The 55-year-old Village Health Worker begins her day long before the sun peeks over the peaks that guard her home.
The air is thin here, the roads long and winding — and yet, for nearly a decade, Mokone has walked them with purpose. Her mission is simple but sacred: to help women in her village experience safe motherhood.
Each knock on a door carries both hope and uncertainty. Sometimes, she is greeted with a smile; other times, only silence. Inside many of these stone houses, she says, the hardest battle is not distance — it’s secrecy.
“Some women hide their pregnancies,” Mokone says softly, her voice carrying the weight of countless encounters. “You can see the signs — the swelling, the tiredness — but they deny it. They don’t want to visit the clinic or let others know.”
In such cases, she must tread carefully. “Sometimes I go through their relatives, husbands. If she trusts another woman, I ask that friend to talk to her.”
Click the link below to read this story by Mamoshe Limpho Makotoko Theko:
These Thaba-Tseka grannies are helping women deliver their babies in safe, clean environments.
