Building a Home …

Halio Falatsi and Relebohile

Too many families are trapped in a daily struggle to survive amid often inhuman living conditions.

In Maseru, Lesotho situated in southern-Africa, single mom Halio (pronounced Hadio) Falatsi occupies a two-roomed shack together with her son, her daughter-in-law, Mma-Relebohile, her toddler grandchild Relebohile (meaning, ‘we are thankful’), and another son, Khabane, who is 12. The one room of 3 x 4 meter serves as combined bedroom for her and her son, kitchen and living room. The married couple and the baby occupy the second room of 1.2 x 3 meter. Their bed and wardrobe fill the room with about1.5 meter x 60 mm walking space. All this is shakily held together by severely cracked walls with little paint left, windows with only a few unbroken panes and a galvanized roof that cannot really keep out the elements.

Halio and her children keep the place as neat as can be, but with no running water or toilet (not even an outside latrine – they simply have to squat somewhere), and with the general condition of the “house”, their health cannot but suffer from the poor hygiene and cramped living conditions. Due to the lack of electricity, they use candles and paraffin lamps – in the confined space for moving around; these could be knocked over at any moment, causing serious burns or death to them and the little one. In this environment, a fire would spread and consume everything in the bat of an eye...

“I thank God that with my new Habitat house, which is nearly completed, I will be able to move out of this horrible hovel of poverty,” says Halio.