In October of 2004, Mokebisa “Short” Koekoe, a factory worker from the China Garment Manufactures (CGM) plant in Maseru, Lesotho, tested positive for HIV. As HIV prevalence rates rise in the ‘Mountain Kingdom’ of Lesotho, the need for strong leadership has emerged that will confront the threat and lead what UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé calls a “prevention revolution”. While testing positive changed Short’s life forever, he is using his own example to educate and empower his community. “Short” has emerged as just the kind of leader Lesotho needs.
The 2010 Modes of Transmission Survey results for HIV/AIDS prompted PSI to reengineer their audience for Voluntary Counseling and Testing (VCT). The goal was to ensure that services were being offered to drivers of the disease – namely men between the ages of 25-35. However, identifying the audience was much easier than accessing them in Lesotho. Men do not regularly visit health clinics and high rates of unemployment keep workers mobile in search of jobs. Therefore, PSI needed someone exactly like Short to identify role models and peer- educators that reached men and motivated them to know their HIV status.
Testing positive for HIV in 2004 was a shock for Short. Born to a poor family in Mohales Hoek – a small city in southern Lesotho, he was raised by his grandparents and a series of distant relatives in Lesotho and South Africa until 1992. While he has completed 7th grade, he is unsure of his birthday or his real age, which he estimates to be about 40. Short had to overcome his own fear once he learned that he was positive. Today, he is a model of fitness and uses that to encourage others – in his words, “to get tested while they are still healthy”.
In addition to being called a folk hero and role model by his people, he is now called a “Community Mobilizer” by PSI/Lesotho. When word gets around that Short Koekoe is in town, men come out to speak with him. He reaches them as a peer and knows what can motivate men to come and get tested. Short not only knows and speaks to their fears through his own experiences but also offers them a solution by way of the New Start services being offered in their village. TV channels, radio stations, community groups, businesses and college professors call him to talk about living with HIV. Text messages on pour in from people he has never met; he is told by an unknown admirer that “…if it was not for you, I would be dead…” He is praised, lauded, and continually thanked.
The leadership that Short Koekoe brings to the HIV prevention challenge in Lesotho cannot be overstated – by living positively, and living publicly, he sets the tone for stigma reduction and encourages others to face their fear and know their status. Every week PSI’s New Start program tests hundreds of potential Mokebisa Koekoes, and every day a new opportunity for a new hero emerges. As Short tells his story, he unwittingly is telling the story of the nation.
— Dennis Walto, PSI Country Representative, Lesotho
