An Aberdyfi woman is working hard to help poverty stricken children in Lesotho, South Africa.

Healthcare is very limited in scope and availability in Lesotho, and the country's health system is challenged by the relentless increase of the burden of disease brought about by AIDS (HIV rates are 23 per cent), and a lack of expertise and human resources. Life expectancy for males is only 47 years and 54 years for females.

Children with disabilities have minimal support.

The need for the work was apparent to Aberdyfi’s Jan Jeffrey during her visits to Lesotho between 2016 and 2020.

As a volunteer physiotherapist supporting children with disabilities in residential homes working on initiatives for Wales for Africa and Dolen Cymru, she learnt that by being creative with available resources and training staff in the fundamentals of physiotherapy and health care, children's lives could be greatly improved, even in low-resource settings.

In 2020, Jan approached a charity in Canada who had some involvement in Lesotho as a funding partner to support a physiotherapy community initiative. The project would bring much needed physiotherapy and health education to children with disabilities and their families living in rural poverty. So the Physiotherapy and Outreach Program (POP Lesotho) was founded in March 2020.

Jan retired from Welsh NHS at the end of 2021 and returned to Lesotho as a full-time volunteer. POP Lesotho (www.poplesotho.org) helps children with cerebral palsy to sit up, walk, use a wheelchair – even be able to get to school, play football and exercise. In three years, Jan has assessed 1,000 children in three of Lesotho’s 20 districts.

Sadly, the Canadian charity is unable to continue funding the work in Lesotho, and has had to withdraw. leaving the children’s future very much in the balance. POP Lesotho is a not-for-profit company doing amazing work, but desperately needs funds to continue. It is a low-cost initiative paying two technicians to make supportive equipment from paper and cardboard, along with a part-time accountant.

Jan is back home for a short time before Christmas and will present an update in Aberdyfi on the work of POP Lesotho on Monday, 15 December at 2.30pm in the English Chapel on Seaview Terrace.

You can also support her work by making a donation on www.justgiving.com. Search for POP Lesotho.

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