Pheko Phera is a driven and motivated individual hailing from Mafeteng, and he is the founder of Lesotho
Mountain Venture. His objective is to promote nature, physical fitness, therapy, and advocate for climate change
awareness. With 15 years of professional experience in community development, he currently serves as the
national youth president at Lesotho Red Cross, where he has led the organization’s transformation over the last
two years, ensuring accountability, effectiveness, and results-driven approaches.
Since 2000, Pheko has collaborated with various youth groups and civil society organizations in Lesotho, as well as engaged with the international community in leadership, community development, and conflict management. He has worked with London’s Skillshare office in Lesotho, collaborated with JHPIEGO leading community education teams on sexual and reproductive health, and partnered with the Lesotho office of Sentebale on children counseling. Pheko has volunteered in Russia, Sweden, and Norway on community development missions, acquiring a Diploma in Street Mediation course in Norway.
Additionally, he is the founder of Whitehorse Communications, a consulting leadership organization aimed at
impacting Basotho youth and adults to improve their lives through self-determination and self-understanding.
Pheko has also worked as a play therapist for SOS Children for four years, conducted street mediation contracts in Lesotho and Zimbabwe, and attended international meetings such as the Pan African Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, and SAPRCS meetings in Namibia, Botswana, and Eswatini. Moreover, he has organized four leadership seminars in Lesotho
The Joint Commission of the Empress Shoken Fund (ESF) has announced a new funding distribution that totals CHF 485,597 and supports projects administered by Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies in 17 countries. The commission is administered by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The projects to be supported cover a variety of topics, including youth, first aid and rescue, disaster preparedness, dissemination of humanitarian ideals, blood transfusion services and National Society development.
The countries where the projects are being implemented are Algeria, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Lithuania, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Montenegro, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa and Vanuatu.
ESF received 60 applications in 2023 for the 103rd distribution of income, representing the largest number of applications ever received, covering a diverse range of humanitarian projects run by National Societies globally. With a total value of over 14 Million Swiss francs, ESF supports projects run by National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies that benefit the communities they serve in many different ways.
ESF continues to encourage new approaches with an emphasis on innovation and learning. For the second consecutive year, National Societies are incubating and testing their innovative solutions and experimenting with a host of ideas and approaches. Using a pilot methodology, awardees can also potentially scale up and implement their initiatives with the support of other funding sources following their ESF pilot. In this category, details of the selected initiatives and their respective initiatives are as follows below.
Lesotho has been affected by severe impacts of climate change such as droughts, hailstorms, snowstorms, heavy rainfall and early frost. Hence, an effective early warning system (EWS) is needed. The Lesotho Red Cross Society will use the grant to reach majority of the population through a mobile-based EWS connected to the emergency centre. Prior to official use of the EWS, a simulation exercise will be done targeting key beneficiaries. Learnings from the simulation exercise will later be adopted in the overall system.
Mohale’s Hoek, Feb. 06 — With the aim of assessing understanding of National Disaster Risk Management Ecosystem, the Lesotho Red Cross Society (LRCS), with its representation from Pretoria, RSA, has on Tuesday held a meeting with the District Disaster Management Team, (DDMT).
LRCS’s Disaster Management Coordinator Ms. Sebongile Hlubi stated that the assessment is also carried out in order to assist in improving the legislative framework of disaster risk management in Lesotho, while addressing challenges faced during disasters as well as lessons learned thereof.
Among major disasters which the DDMT pointed out to be frequenting the district include heavy rainfalls, draught and hail, strong winds which led to most houses being blown away, and an outbreak of locusts which destroyed crops, therefore leaving households vulnerable.
On Tuesday 20th February 2024, Lesotho Red Cross Society (LRCS) provided a family whose house had just burned on the outskirts of Maseru at Ha ‘Mants’ebo with relieve materials that included bags of maize meal, rice, beans and cooking oil cosmetics, blankets and mattresses.
The household had four occupants living inside it them being: Mr & Mrs Khuele and their two grandchildren . Upon assessing the situation on the 19th February, the following day the LRCS provided the family with, food parcels that included bags of maize meal, rice, beans and cooking oil. Also, they provided the family with cosmetics, blankets and mattresses.
“The house was engulfed in flames” said Mrs Khuele in an interview as she was outlining the events of the fateful day to LRCS representatives. The LRCS representative at the scene provided the family with Psycho-social support at which the family was reassured that the LRCS would be with them every step of the way, especially the granddaughter whom it is said is terrified of stepping foot onto the premises due to the trauma the incident caused her.
According to Mrs Khuele, the fire was so vicious that it burned and put both her granddaughter and husband in hospital. The daughter is said to have suffered burns on her head, while the husband suffered burns on his back, shoulders and his left arm. “As it stands, we have no way of moving forward as Mr Khuele is the only breadwinner in this household and we live off his M900 pension money.”
“I hope the Lord helps your organisation to grow so that you may help other people in need” concluded Mrs Khuele.
Following the heavy rainfall coupled with winds which caused severe damages affecting 968 people whose impacts were felt mostly by communities in Maseru and Quthing districts from the 22nd -28th December 2023, Lesotho Red Cross Society (LRCS) received the Disaster Relief Emergency Fund (DREF) to the tune of 71 435 CHF from International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (IFRC) to respond.
The overall objective of this DREF is to provide support and assistance to 770 targeted people affected in Quthing and Maseru through a comprehensive response addressing humanitarian priorities which are shelter, livelihoods, and mitigating immediate hygiene and disease prevention while monitoring the situation.
The assessment revealed that storms did not only disrupted infrastructure and houses but also affected household economic stability. Business owners and people working in affected businesses were affected and also lost their daily income. People also lost their valuable property and other household items.
When the event occurred, most farmers were midway through the summer cropping and the excessive rains led to waterlogged fields and this has a potential to threaten the next harvest and livelihoods as most people in rural community areas rely heavily on agriculture as their primary source of food and income.
The prioritized needs include WASH, shelter, food parcels and other essential households’ items. Following the assessment and verification exercise, LRCS will be able to release the support in the coming months. Strategy is to provide cash intervention with some in-kind distribution for a holistic approach that will mitigate the negative impacts of the disaster and assist the affected families to cope whilst restoring their well-being and covering their emergency needs.
Protection, Gender, and Inclusion (PGI), and Community Engagement and Accountability (CEA) will be mainstreamed in all the interventions. For instance, CEA approaches will use suggestion box, the already existing toll-free number and the formation of community help desk.
LRCS is also targeting to provide mattress, blankets and kitchen sets that will constitute the minimum of items to help the families and later give them minimum necessities when they get back to their restored houses. Through this DREF operation, each family will receive the total of LSL 3,700.
This multi-usage cash one off instalment will be provided to efficiently cover the multi-sectoral needs of the affected families, include provision of shelter, cover the basic needs that ensured to each family’s minimum protection to mitigate further harm. – M 1200 of that instalment is calculated to purchase average minimum food basket. – M 2500 of that instalment aims to address shelter needs such as roofing and repair other the damages.
This will help the affected families to return to their households. Beneficiaries will receive mobile cash transfers distribution using the two available network services to ensure the best coverage and access for all the families.
Community-based targeting and verification with local authorities will be done to avoid duplication and corruption-related targeting. Community Engagement Accountability tools will be in place to allow two-way communication between stakeholders and beneficiaries.
The project will last for four Months starting from January to May 2024.
Climate change increasingly exerts pressure on natural resources, threatening humanity and nature. Water-related risks are an example of this: in many parts of the world, scarce and continuously declining availabilities of water cause major concerns such as drought, while in other places, too much water causes great disturbance in the form of floods. Overall, climate change is expected to decrease water supply, alter the timing of water availability, and increase the severity of both droughts and floods, hitting already vulnerable communities the hardest. These threats to the environment and local populations require ambitious measures in response – and preparation.
The availability of data on global water resources has a role to play in managing these challenges. This is why, with Google.org funding, Deltares, the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) have joined forces to develop the Global Water Watch. This platform provides free, globally accessible, near-real-time information on water availability in over 70,000 global reservoirs and major river systems, derived using satellite data, machine learning, and cloud computing. While there is often a focus on the correlation between drought and precipitation in anticipatory action research and operations, the relevance of information on available water storage can be overlooked. The Global Water Watch could change this, by providing easy-to-access information on water storage globally which allows for predictions of drought occurring, and appropriate anticipatory measures, ahead of time. In the tool’s ongoing development, thanks to funding from the European Space Agency (ESA), Deltares and 510, the data and digital initiative of the Netherlands Red Cross, are collaborating to generate further improvements by implementing the monitoring of water storage and investigating the usefulness of this information for humanitarian purposes.
“Global Water Watch may provide essential information in areas that strongly rely on surface water resources for, for example, food production or drinking water supply. If drought occurs in a remote area, Global Water Watch should be able to detect this at an early stage, provide key insights into the amount of available water, and potentially inform stakeholders such as the Red Cross.” – Hessel Winsemius, Lead Hydrologist at Deltares
The tool is expected to facilitate responding to extreme weather events, managing climate-related risks, and making societies more climate-resilient. This is where 510 comes in: in close cooperation with the developers of the Global Water Watch, we have engaged in dialogue with several National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies active in anticipatory action and water management to understand their needs and ensure the final tool will meet them. By incorporating these insights, the Global Water Watch has the potential to be a trailblazer among tools used by anticipatory action professionals in the humanitarian sector to predict drought and protect lives and livelihoods in affected populations accordingly.
Predicting and reducing the impact of drought in Lesotho
One of such dialogues was undertaken in Lesotho, where inconsistent rainfall, a hot, dry climate and intense drought are making the country’s population increasingly vulnerable. A shortage of permanent surface water over large parts of the country has turned water into a scarce resource, exposing local communities to food insecurity due to crop failure and unproductive rangelands. The Lesotho Red Cross Society is closely involved in water management to mitigate such risks and protect people from their impact. To test the usefulness of the Global Water Watch for these purposes, a delegation from the 510 team undertook a visit to Lesotho in March 2023. Discussions with the National Society and other stakeholders such as the Lesotho Ministry of Water contributed to a better understanding of current tools used to inform decision-making in this context, allowing for conclusions on where the Global Water Watch could fit in. This visit inspired ongoing conversations on global and local levels about how water storage data can inform anticipatory action. Guided by these conversations, the tool has undergone further technical improvements.
“This initiative has been an eye opener to the National Society and the government partners overall. Global Water Watch provides useful information that can support programming with the aim of helping the most vulnerable.” – Sebongile Hlubi, Anticipatory Action and Readiness Coordinator at Lesotho Red Cross Society
What’s next?
While already advanced and ready for use in multiple contexts, the development of the Global Water Watch is ever-evolving. The platform will be further scaled up in the near future. Key developments foreseen in the forthcoming years are to improve the accuracy and information on uncertainty for existing monitored reservoirs, allow users to add or suggest monitoring of new water bodies, and predict water availability in the forthcoming months.
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