PIH Lesotho organization and people

The Partners In Health Rural Initiative project in Lesotho supports seven remote mountain clinics at Nohana, Bobete, Nkau, Lebakeng, Tlhanyaku, Methalaneng and Manamaneng. Central operations in Lesotho are based at an office in the capital city of Maseru, which receives support from PIH headquarters in Boston. The project maintains doctors and/or senior nurses at each mountain clinic to treat patients and provide training and oversight for nurses and village health workers.

The office in Maseru provides managerial and logistical support and coordinates with the Ministry of Health and with partner organizations, including: the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI); Lesotho Flying Doctor Service (LFDS), which works under the Ministry of Health to bring doctors and medicines to clinics that are difficult to reach by road; and Mission Aviation Fellowship, whose planes and pilots we rely upon to get people, supplies and laboratory samples in and out of the remote mountain clinics.

PIH's MDR-TB project in Lesotho is based at Botsabelo MDR-TB Hospital in Maseru, which was completely renovated in 2007. Previously a leprosy hospital, Botsabelo Hospital was converted into a 20-bed facility for the treatment of critically ill MDR-TB and MDR-TB/HIV co-infected patients. MDR-TB treatment lasts two years and is mostly provided at the community level, supported by paid and carefully trained community treatment supporters who visit patients in their homes twice a day.

The project includes a new pharmacy, supporting the vast amounts of MDR-TB and side effect medicines necessary (many co-infected patients must take 20-30 pills each day). PIH also supported the renovation of the TB Laboratory in Maseru. Staffed by Ministry of Health lab techs receiving technical assistance from the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND), the lab is currently performing culture and first-line drug sensitivity testing, and has recently started performing parallel tests on liquid media culture via a MGIT machine donated by FIND.

A project coordinator based at Partners In Health headquarters in Boston helps coordinate communication and management.

Key people in the Lesotho project include:

Clinical Director - Dr. Hind Satti
Project Manager – Mr. Archie Ayeh
Clinical Manager (Boston and Lesotho) - Dr. KJ (Kwonjune) Seung
Community Coordinator – Ms. Likhapha Ntlamelle
Monitoring & Evaluation Coordinator – Ms. Sophie Motsamai
Deputy Program Manager – Mr. Haytham Sati
Project Coordinator (Boston) – Ms. Jennie Riley
Research Assistant (Boston) – Ms. Megan McLaughlin