By Jo Ann Mitchell Brasington ’89
Thirty-six years ago, Jan Brabham ’88 arrived in Lesotho as an idealistic and, admittedly, naïve 21-year-old Peace Corps volunteer. When she returned this spring for the first time since her Peace Corps service ended in 1990, she was more prepared … in many ways. Brabham was accompanied by her son, Keefe Kalil, and greeted by Monica Letsoha, one of the students Brabham once taught at Pitseng High School.
“When I joined the Peace Corps, I thought I could change the world,” says Brabham. “I quickly learned that I was not prepared to be a teacher, much less make a global impact.”
At the time, teachers in Lesotho taught a British curriculum, and students had to pass Cambridge Overseas School exams. Teaching literature such as Macbeth was a challenge in a place so far removed from Shakespearean England, so Brabham fell back on what she knew from Wofford.
“I had these memories of Dr. Ed Henry reading Chaucer aloud to our class,” says Brabham. “So that’s what I did with Macbeth.”
Brabham’s reading of Macbeth resonated with Monica Letsoha in many ways.
“She was one of my most determined and motivated students. She went on to university and got a degree in library science,” says Brabham. “Unfortunately, most of the roughly 50 other students in Monica’s class have died of AIDS, and while AIDS deaths have decreased in recent years thanks to education, Lesotho is still a country of orphans.”
The two wrote letters for decades, sharing life updates and struggles. Brabham and Letsoha were communicating via social media and email by the time the pandemic hit.
“At the time, Monica was a librarian at the College of Education at the University of Lesotho. All of a sudden no one was working, and schools were not open, so Monica would get on national radio and read to the children,” says Brabham.
During this crisis, Letsoha began to dream of founding a literacy center with a library for underserved students and orphans. She shared her vision with Brabham, who, in turn, shared it with her family.
“Keefe, my youngest son, researched the education system of Lesotho as his senior project. He examined the history and analyzed where Lesotho has been successful and where it has struggled in its efforts to educate its youth. It became the perfect excuse to return,” Brabham says.
Kalil expanded his project to include raising funds for MOLETE Foundation, the nonprofit Letsoha founded to build learning and community in Lesotho’s youth. Brabham and Kalil also brought school supplies and clothes collected as part of Keefe’s fundraising efforts. In Lesotho, Keefe interviewed Letsoha and the principals and the teachers at several schools and orphanages. He also played soccer with and read to the children in MOLETE’s reading club. Watching her son read to the children was a full-circle moment for Brabham.
“I watched him interact with Monica, who treated him like he was this wise investor instead of a high school student. The two were so invested in the conversation, the ideas each shared. It’s what you want,” she says, “for your children to see the humanity in others.”
Brabham called the trip back to Lesotho a working vacation. She serves on the board of the MOLETE Foundation at Letsoha’s request and is planning to return next spring, this time with more than 30 years of experience in education. She will work with and train teachers, hopefully in a new literacy center built by MOLETE.
“Lesotho has now written and adopted their own curriculum. And they’ve made education free for everyone. It’s a big change because the teachers have experienced something else,” she says. “Now I feel like I have enough knowledge and experience to help younger professionals be better teachers. When I was in Lesotho the first time, I didn’t have enough to give a people who so desperately wanted education. Now I do, and I hope I can go back and make up for that.”
Letsoha’s goal is to break ground on the literacy center and library in 2025, and Brabham has learned to believe in Letsoha, regardless of the odds.
“Monica is a person who has never given up,” says Brabham. “She is the most determined woman I know. Her dreams are big. At one point I thought they would never come to fruition, but they are.”