By Neo Kolane
Puma Energy Lesotho and Sepheo, a faith-based NGO, have teamed up to support homeless children in Maseru.
Through their fuel sponsorship programme, Puma Energy Lesotho has enabled Sepheo to run its free school bus across the capital city, ensuring that children like Puseletso can attend school every day no matter where their families are located.
When the outreach team from Sepheo first spotted 13-year-old Puseletso in Maseru town, he was dirty and high. He didn’t go to school. Instead, he begged and scavenged for scraps to eat preferring life on the streets to being at home.
When Sepheo traced his family, they discovered that Puseletso and his siblings were sleeping in caves on the outskirts of their village. Their mother, who struggled with addictions, was rarely at home. When she was, it was often in the company of boyfriends, something which made Puseletso and his siblings uncomfortable.
Now, Puseletso’s life is very different thanks to the support provided by companies like Puma Energy Lesotho and Sepheo, which has been supporting vulnerable children in Maseru since 2014. The family is stable. Puseletso and a sibling are enrolled at Sepheo Primary School. The children sleep at home and attend school every day.
The coaching and mental health support provided to their mother has enabled her to move back home and provide the basic care her children need.
“The streets of Maseru have changed since we started Sepheo,” Josh Groves, Sepheo Director, says.
“Downtown Maseru is no longer populated with homeless children – some of them as young as eight – begging rather than attending school. Sepheo’s unique model has supported hundreds of homeless children to return to families and complete primary school, many of them going on to mainstream high schools, vocational schools and to start families of their own,” Groves notes.
Stephane Nuetsha, General Manager of Puma Energy Lesotho, says together with Sepheo, they are changing lives.
The company’s monthly donation of fuel has enabled Sepheo to run its free school bus across the capital city ensuring that children like Puseletso can attend school every day no matter where their families are located.
“As a corporate citizen, we are extremely proud to be a part of this programme; to be contributing to changing lives as Sepheo is doing; to be energising our community – playing a deliberate and active role in community development is in line with this,” Nuetsha adds.
