Skip to content
Contact us
Our work in Lesotho

Enhancing Nutrition in Lesotho.

Nutrition does not begin in the kitchen. It begins with the soil, the water available for growing, the variety of food within reach and the way each meal is prepared.

In Malealea, Africa’s Gift supports a connected, community-led approach that brings these elements together — from regenerating degraded soil and conserving rainfall to household gardens, practical education and locally made Eco Cook Bags.

Explore the approach Support this work
Growing food in the Malealea Valley, Lesotho
Malealea ValleyMafeteng, Lesotho
Why this work matters

A nutrition challenge with many causes.

Lesotho faces a complex nutrition challenge shaped by poverty, food insecurity, land degradation and an increasingly unpredictable climate.

Improving nutrition requires more than increasing the quantity of food available. It also means supporting varied diets, protecting the natural resources on which food production depends and making nutritious ingredients practical to prepare at home.

56%

of households cannot afford a nutritious diet

Source: World Food Programme

36%

of children under five are affected by stunting

Source: UNICEF Lesotho

These are national figures, not measurements of Africa’s Gift’s impact. They show why practical, locally appropriate work connecting agriculture, food and cooking matters.

The approach

One connected approach — from soil to meal.

Africa’s Gift supports work addressing five connected parts of everyday nutrition.

Regenerating the soil

Restore the soil

Regenerative methods and local organic materials improve the conditions food is grown in.

Contour swales in Malealea

Conserve water

Slow rainfall, reduce runoff and evaporation, and use available water more carefully.

A varied harvest grown at home

Grow a varied harvest

Crop rotation, companion planting and household gardening bring produce closer to home.

Cooking with less active heat

Cook with less active heat

Insulated Eco Cook Bags keep cooking a covered pot once it has boiled, using no more fuel.

Malealea Teaching Farm

Share practical knowledge

Farmers, families, schools and visitors see the methods in practice and adapt them.

Your support keeps this growing.

Donations go straight into the soil, water, growing and cooking projects on this page — and into the hands of the communities running them.

Donate now
Biochar being worked into the soil in Malealea
Regenerating the soilMalealea, Lesotho
Soil

Regenerating depleted soil.

Much of Lesotho’s soil is under severe pressure from erosion, declining organic matter and cultivation on vulnerable land. When fertile topsoil is carried away by wind or heavy rain, growing food becomes harder.

In Malealea, the response begins with keeping the soil covered and returning organic material to it.

Explore the Teaching Farm
01

Turning invasive wood into biochar

Unwanted invasive wattle is removed and the wood repurposed as biochar, then combined with manure and compost before being worked into the soil.

It is not a fertiliser by itself, and its effects depend on the material, the process and the soil — so we don’t claim identical results in every field.

02

Keeping the ground covered

Mulch and living cover protect soil from wind, intense sun and heavy rain, slowing evaporation and runoff while returning organic material to the ground.

Crop rotation and companion planting are demonstrated alongside, so the same nutrients are not drawn from the ground season after season.

Water

Making better use of rainfall.

Water is precious in a predominantly rain-fed farming system. Heavy storms can carry water rapidly across the land, taking fertile soil with them, while dry periods leave crops without enough moisture.

The methods demonstrated in Malealea are designed to slow this movement and keep more water where plants can use it.

  • Contour swales follow the natural level of the land, helping to interrupt runoff and encourage water to enter the soil.
  • Stormwater channels help direct heavy flows away from vulnerable growing areas.
  • Mulch and cover crops reduce bare ground and slow the loss of moisture through evaporation.
Making better use of rainfall in Malealea
Capturing rainfallMalealea, Lesotho
Keyhole garden and raised beds close to home
Keyhole gardenHousehold growing
Household growing

Bringing fresh food closer to home.

Household growing can make fresh produce more accessible, particularly where conventional gardens are difficult to establish.

Africa’s Gift supports the use of raised beds and keyhole gardens close to people’s homes. A keyhole garden is a compact, raised growing space that can be built from locally available materials. Its design makes the planting area easier to reach and can help conserve water and organic material.

Different vegetables can be grown within a relatively small space. Where appropriate, protective netting can help shield crops from harsh sun, wind and other difficult growing conditions.

Cooking

Cooking with retained heat.

Growing nutritious ingredients is only part of the journey. Families must also have a practical way to prepare them.

An Eco Cook Bag is an insulated retained-heat cooker. A covered pot is first heated on the household’s normal stove or fire and brought to the boil. It is then placed inside the insulated bag, where the heat already in the pot continues cooking the food.

The bag does not create heat and does not completely replace a stove or fire. Its role is to reduce the length of time a pot needs active heating.

This can be particularly useful for foods such as beans and pulses that normally require long periods of simmering. It can also reduce the time someone must spend tending a fire or watching a pot.

Locally made Eco Cook Bags
Eco Cook BagsMade in Malealea
Discover Eco Cook Bags
Learning in practice at the Malealea Teaching Farm
Malealea Teaching FarmSlow Food Farms network
Education

Learning by seeing and doing.

Lasting change depends on knowledge being understood, tested and adapted locally.

The Malealea Teaching Farm is a practical place where regenerative methods can be seen in use — from soil improvement and water management to cover cropping, crop rotation and seedling production. It uses no insecticides or pesticides and is part of the international Slow Food Farms network.

Explore the Teaching Farm
Partnership

Twenty-six years of partnership and learning.

Africa’s Gift is now in its 26th year of partnership with communities in the Malealea Valley. That length of relationship is the reason the work can connect soil, water, food and cooking rather than treating them separately.

It also means the approach has changed over time. Methods are tested locally, adapted, and kept only where communities find them useful — alongside the Malealea Development Trust and other local partners.

Explore the Teaching Farm
  1. 2000

    The first conversations

    Talks with local health workers highlight the effects of prolonged exposure to smoke from open-fire cooking.

  2. 2003

    The first partnership visit

    The link between South Yorkshire and the community of Malealea becomes a working partnership on the ground.

  3. 2008

    Charitable status

    Africa’s Gift gains charitable status, and HRH Prince Seeiso of Lesotho becomes Patron.

  4. 2026

    A twenty-sixth year

    King Letsie III visits the Teaching Farm and Eco Cook Bag project, and the farm joins the international Slow Food Farms network.

Help this work keep growing.

Every donation funds the soil, water, growing and cooking work in Lesotho, South Africa and Uganda — delivered by volunteers, with the communities that run each project.