Scholarship Recipients
The Lesotho Education Fund is currently providing full scholarships to 23 students with the almost $30,000 donated since 2005. These 23 students would not be in school if not for the generosity of our donors. Following is some more information about a few of our recipients.
Neo Letsie
Neo Letsie would be at home helping her mother gather wood, fetch water, and cook if she were not receiving a scholarship from the Lesotho Education Fund. Neo, an inquisitive and bright 16-year-old girl, is the youngest of 6 children. She is the first and only one in her family to enter high school. Her parents have simply not had enough money to pay for both food and costly school fees. Neo's parents are grateful that she has this chance to attend high school. Her father worked in the mines in South Africa long ago, but has been out of work for years. Neo's mother takes care of the house and raises a few chickens. Neo says it is a great sacrifice for her mother that she is in school because she is not helping with the housework, but her parents want her to go to school so she is able to get a good job. Neo is also fortunate in that two of her brothers work as cobblers in town. They are the only siblings to earn any money, however meager. They have managed to pay for Neo's school uniform and notebooks. Neo is a talented student. In a school where many of the first year students fail their first semester, Neo passed all of her classes and was position four out of 49 students the first quarter and then moved up to position two the second quarter. She is not sure what she wants to do in the future, but she said that with a high school degree, "I will be able to live a better life than if I weren't in school."
Makhaba Motsepa
Makhaba is the 6th of eight children and lives with her mother, father, four sisters and three brothers. One of her sisters is in high school, the fees being paid by another sister who sells fish on the streets of Lesotho's capital, Maseru. If not for her scholarship from the Lesotho Education Fund, Makhaba would be moving to Maseru to help her sister in her work. Makhaba loves school and has performed very well in it - she finished primary school in position two out of the 49 students in her class. She has done exceptionally well in the first three years of high school, outperforming many of the more privileged students. Her favorite subject is English. She believes learning English is incredibly important as you cannot find good jobs in Lesotho without a command of English. When she finishes high school, she'd like to go on to university and become an accountant or a lawyer.
Thato Ranthiti
Thato has a dream of being a nurse or doctor. She loves her science class and is a member of the school science club. As part of a project for the science club, Thato experimented with animal blood in the hopes of finding a cure for AIDS, the pandemic she sees ravaging her community. Thato would not be in high school if it weren’t for the scholarship from the Lesotho Education Fund. Despite her interest in school and good grades, her family does not have money to pay for school fees. Both her parents are ill and have barely been able to support the family. Her parents managed to buy Thato’s school uniform by selling some of the corn from their fields. Thato is a confident and energetic student, eager to ask and answer questions in class. She has been in the top 10% of her class of 51 students both of the first two quarters of school this year. Her favorite class is science, but she also likes her English class. With the HIV/AIDS epidemic impacting the health of hundreds of thousands of Basotho, Lesotho is in desperate need of nurses. With her Lesotho Education Fund scholarship, Thato has the opportunity to fulfill this need for her country.
Molupe Malataliana
Molupe lives with his mother and 2 sisters. His father passed away in 2004 so his mother is now trying to support the family on her own. She also works to help other orphaned children in the community. As the only boy in the family, if he were not in school, he would likely be taking care of the family’s animals. He is an excellent student who has excelled in all of his classes. His favorite subjects are science and math, the two most challenging classes for most students. He hopes to study computer science at the university level after high school. Molupe wrote in a letter, “My ambition is to make you feel happy and proud of donating your money to people like me who will become professionals because of your help."
Nteboheng Mpanya
Nteboheng lives with multiple generations – her grandmother, father, two younger siblings and her uncles. Her father does not have a job but sells fruit when he can. Nteboheng sometimes helps sell fruit after school but this money would not be nearly enough to cover her school fees. Nteboheng enjoys math and does very well in this subject but struggled last year in her English class, which meant she had to repeat the year. This year she is doing much better in English and is on the path to graduating to the next grade. She wrote, “I am trying my best to make sure I don’t repeat because of one class and now I see my improvement between last year and this year in my classes.” She wants to be a police woman when she graduates from high school.
Mamonyaka Motsepa
Mamonyaka has had a very difficult time since her father died in 2007, leaving her mother to provide for Mamonyaka and her 4 younger siblings. Her mother supports the family by growing their food and occasionally earning money by washing other people’s clothes. Mamonyaka would have not chance of continuing her education without help from the Lesotho Education Fund. Her mother hopes that Mamonyaka can help support the family with a job she gets with her education. She greatly appreciates the help she has gotten from the Lesotho Education Fund. “I pass my thanks to the members of the Lesotho Education Fund for being so important to me because of assisting me to attend school. If it were not for you, I would be staying at home not knowing what to do. I remember you daily because you have been so helpful to me,” Mamonyaka wrote in a recent letter.