Lesotho: The Irish Connection

RTÉ Radio 1, Saturday 2nd January 2010

RTÉ Radio's Damien O Reilly presents this special programme from Lesotho in Southern Africa, a small independent country. Lesotho is one of the most beautiful countries in Africa but this is poor compensation for the fact that it has the third highest rate of HIV/AIDS among adults in the world. However good work is going on to help fight the HIV/AIDS problem.

"Lesotho is one of the most beautiful countries in the continent of Africa. But its beauty is tempered by the huge problem of Aids and HIV", according to Damien O' Reilly who went to Lesotho with Irish Aid before Christmas.

"I visited a montessori school where many of the children are orphaned or have lost at least one parent to the virus. But I learned from my visit that it is possible to live a relatively normal life even with HIV/Aids. The key to this is getting people tested and treated if they are positive. For many years, the issue was swept under the carpet. Governments in countries worst affected didnt want to know but now they do. And Ireland is playing a major role in this in Lesotho".

Irish Aid will commit €11 million euros in aid to Lesotho this year. In conjunction with the Clinton foundation, some of this money is being put towards the building of clinics in remote parts of the mountain areas which are difficult to access. Alot of this work is being overseen by the Irish Embassy in the capital Maseru.

Damien says, "I visited two of these remote clinics. They are a life saver for thousands of Aids and HIV sufferers who are now being cared for and helped in a way they were not before. One man told me that before the clinics, they buried corpses Monday to Monday. But now that has changed and the local funeral undertaker has gone out of business."

"in the programme we will hear from some of the victims. The programme will also give a real sense of the strong Irish connection with this small country the size of Munster."