Africa-Press – Lesotho. World Vision Lesotho in partnership with Christian Council of Lesotho (CCL) presented a review on Faith Partnership for Environmental Sustainability and Climate Action project at Lancers Inn hotel on October 4th.
This was a two year program funded by World Vision United States of America (U.S) that ran from October 2023 to September 2025. It particularly ran in two northern districts; Leribe and Mokhotlong.
The initiative aims to build community and households resilience to climate change by empowering faith actors to promote environmental stewardship within their communities.
Key activities included training faith leaders and community members in climate smart agriculture and fostering a shift in mindsets and behaviors towards environmental care.
World Vision partnered with CCL because of the positive influence faith leaders have on social norms and behavior in communities, enabling irresponsibleness on households and communities to climate change.
The project achieved what it intended to as some households are now financially surviving as they are able to produce crops to sell after the training, also the community approach on climate action has changed for better.
However, challenges were negative messages especially towards burning of grass for new pastures, lack of resources, and low men participation in the project’s initiatives.
Researches from Dr. Lekholokoe Leshota on whether there is climate change or not revealed that people in those areas are convinced that there is some change in the climate from their own observations from high temperatures and unpredictable weather patterns.
They also stated that the summer temperatures have increased, and winter temperatures have decreased.
His research aimed to interact with communities in the areas of four villages of Leribe and four villages of Mokhotlong with the intention to collect the data.
Faith leader Mathaleha Lesala said the trainings has ignited a vision in him to restore what has been lost in communities by putting what he learned in practice.
In conclusion, he said he is now mobilizing his congregation to champion climate action and environmental sustainability, and his community has become a model, others should come and learn.
National Director of World Vision James Chifwelu said the project is all about learning not winning and losing as such.
He said the theme of the project is “unlocking spiritual resources for environmental sustainability and climate action in Lesotho,” and they partnered with CCL in order to address the issue of climate action from different perspectives.
As he concludes he stated that working with faith leaders is a game changer as people get highly influenced by them.
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