Combating ‘blessers’ by achieving DREAMS: Linking young women graduates to employment in Lesotho
Meet Seipati, a young woman from Lesotho living with her father, a self-employed driver; her mother, who works for the government; and two brothers and three sisters. The family of eight struggled to make ends meet. Seipati shared one room with her five siblings, stacking their clothes along the wall to save space, and they could not afford electricity.
Despite the family’s financial situation, Seipati was able to earn a Certified Accounting Technician certificate from the Center for Accounting Studies in Maseru in 2013. However, like many other young women graduates in Lesotho, she was unable to find a job. After three long years of searching for a job, Seipati was introduced by a friend to Touch Roots Africa’s DREAMS Innovation Challenge project, which is funded by PEPFAR and managed by JSI. The project provides internships, psychosocial support, and peer networks to young women graduating from tertiary institutions in Lesotho to help them achieve long-term employment.
Since 2004, Touch Roots Africa has been working with vulnerable populations in Lesotho. Through their work, they found that unemployed young women often find financial independence through blessers. Blessers are older adults who offer financial and material support in exchange for companionship or sex. These relationships often result in the transmission of HIV to young women, as 25% of Lesotho’s population is living with HIV.¹ To combat this reality, Touch Roots Africa initiated their DREAMS Innovation Challenge project to increase employability and build resilience in young woman between the ages of 18 and 24 to help reduce their risk of contracting HIV.
With support from DREAMS, Seipati was placed as an intern at SOS Children’s Village in 2017, which was extended into a short-term contract as an assistant accountant. Now, she is able to contribute financially to her household.
With Seipati employed, her family has been able to install electricity in their home. Seipati still shares a room with her siblings, but she hopes that within the next couple of years, they can save enough money together to build extra rooms in their house.
Seipati’s father, Michael, is very proud of his daughter, and her contributions to their home. He says, “Looking at the unemployment rate, it’s very challenging to raise six children. Now, Seipati can help with purchasing stuff for the family.”
According to Michael, programs such as DREAMS help young women to focus on their goals and distract them from blessers. “The blessers destroy the future of young women,” says Michael.
Seipati dreams big. She hopes to become a finance manager, and one day have her own business. “I am an empowered woman, resilient and also ambitious,” she says. “My aim is to become an entrepreneur!”
Through Touch Roots Africa’s DREAMS Innovation Challenge project, 368 young women have started their first internship, and around 90 of those internships were extended to short-term or long-term contracts.
[1] https://www.helplesotho.org/lesotho/lesothohivaids-in-lesotho/This message was funded by a grant from the United States Department of State as part of the DREAMS Innovation Challenge, managed by JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc. (JSI). The opinions, findings, and conclusions stated herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States Department of State or JSI.
Photo credit: Lambert Coleman / Hans Lucas
