UNICEF Lesotho Voices - Never Forget

Parents Marafelie and Mohloni Khechane are both HIV positive. Marafelie received PMTCT and her son Selebalo was born free of HIV.

The Khechane family live in Mohale's Hoek, Lesotho. Mother, Marafelie, and father, Mohloni, are both living with HIV and are part of a support group for people who are HIV positive. When Marafelie was pregnant with their youngest child, Selebalo, she received prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) services. Selebalo was given a drop of ARVs shortly after birth and the process was successful: Selebalo tested HIV negative.

In the African kingdom of Lesotho almost one in every four adults is living with HIV, the third highest HIV prevalence rate in the world. One in three pregnant women in antenatal care is HIV positive, meaning that every year thousands of children risk being born with HIV, passed from mother to child during pregnancy or birth.

UNICEF has helped to increase the number of clinics and hospitals offering Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT) services that reduce the chances of babies being born with HIV. In these clinics, every pregnant mother is tested for HIV, given counselling and advice and if necessary, put on a life-saving anti retroviral (ARV) drug regime. Within eight hours of the birth, the newborn is also given a dose of the ARV Nevirapine. All of this increases the chances of the baby being born free from HIV.

However, despite ongoing efforts, today only 20% of all HIV positive women in the country can access PMTCT. As a result, one in ten of all babies are born with HIV in Lesotho.

Photographer Gideon Mendel travelled to Lesotho in November 2007 and the resulting Lesotho Voices films, images and words tell the personal stories of several women there. The women are from different regions of the country, all are living with HIV. Some of them have benefited from PMTCT. Others have suffered without access to these vital services.

For more information visit the Youth Voice website: www.unicef.org.uk/youthvoice/bornfree.asp.

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• lesotho
• women
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