Partners

Elizabeth Hamilton, Director of Camp 'Mamohato Network

The 'Mamohato Camps are one week residential camps for children who are HIV positive and receiving treatment, designed to enable them to build peer group networks. In addition to the main camps, the children are supported throughout the year by Teen Clubs, family days and Camp reunions.

Elizabeth Hamilton is the Director of the Camp 'Mamohato Network for Sentebale. Elizabeth was brought up in Vermont and she then went on to study at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. After university, Elizabeth spent three more years in Massachusetts working at a youth recreation centre while also running children's camps during her summer breaks. Elizabeth then decided to join the United States Peace Corps and this is how she first came to Lesotho. She was assigned to a Secondary School in Mohale's Hoek where she spent two years teaching children English and about HIV and AIDS. During this time she also volunteered for Camp 'Mamohato, and she now works full time on the Camps and Network with Sentebale. Here Elizabeth talks about the work of the Camps and why she believes they are so important.

“This network of Camps and Teen Clubs has the potential to transform HIV and AIDS education and thus the effects of the pandemic in Lesotho. We are working to break the current silence surrounding HIV and AIDS starting with youth. Parents are not talking to their children about the disease. Teachers are not talking to their students about the disease. But now, children are talking to other children. We believe that this child-to-child communication is the key to reducing the spread of the infection in Lesotho.

I feel honoured to be a part of the Camp 'Mamohato Network. Never before has there been such a focus in Lesotho on caring for children living with HIV and AIDS. This program is unique and innovative and the impact is clear. We are educating, caring for and supporting these children. The Camps and Teen Clubs work because the children are given a safe, loving and respectful environment in which they can be themselves and openly discuss (and therefore deal with) their disease. The relationships that the children build with other children, with local peer educators and with their doctors, nurses and social workers make them want to go to the clinic. The clinic has become a safe place, a place where they can find help if they need it, as well as a place where they can feel accepted and have a lot of fun.

I've chosen to stay in Lesotho to work on this project because people here are excited and full of hope for the Camp 'Mamohato program. The local community is behind this approach and wants to see it succeed and impact more and more children in Lesotho. Having seen the impact of the Camps and network on the children, I want to be here to help to make sure that this program reaches its full potential and as many children benefit from it as possible. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the smiles, energy, self-confidence and hope for the future in the children when they leave our program”.