Various meetings were initiated with all the stakeholders to bring this vision to fruition. Meetings were held with, inter alia, the Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho, the local chiefs, the Semonkong Town Council and the community. This ultimately culminated in land being allocated, at no cost, adjacent to the airfield, where the planned new hospital will be constructed. This would replace the old, empty, dilapidated hospital structure. Land has also been allocated for the development of living quarters for the hospital staff. Also, a Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Health (Lesotho) and the Trust was signed in May, 2014. This Memorandum grants the Trust permission to develop the hospital and establishes the parameters of cooperation between the Ministry and the Trust.
While we are still in the preparatory phases of the Semonkong Hospital, outreach teams visit Semonkong regularly. Consequently, through the various engagements with the community over the years and the Trust's permanent volunteers based in Semonkong, a very good relationship has evolved between the Trust and the local community.
The foundation of the Semonkong Hospital Project is community input, engagement, and partnership, seeking to maximise indigenous knowledge input into the design, but also to instil a sense of community ownership over the project. For the past couple of years, the design team has engaged in an extensive community participation process to help strengthen the vision for the project and chart a pathway towards implementation.
The Trust broke ground in June 2020 to start construction of the Pilot Phase which will be a multi-functional building. It will serve as a new veterinary and community centre and will provide a veterinary clinic, a training and development facility, and accommodation for visiting teams. The multi-functional facility will serve as research and development station for the future hospital construction, testing building techniques which will be invaluable and will need scaling up for design and construction of the future hospital. This beautiful, self-sustaining, eco-friendly 200m2 facility is a synthesis of traditional building methods and forms with contemporary, performance- based technology.
The Trust is privileged to have enlisted an experienced, world-class Management Team, Board of Trustees and Advisory Board.