How it Works

1. The Tiny Lives Foundation

Who We Are

The Tiny Lives Foundation (TTLF) is a network of communities and individuals in North America dedicated to enabling the life-saving work of TTL in Lesotho. By raising funds, spreading awareness, and providing technical support, TTLF empowers a smart, sustainable, and local response to the HIV epidemic through the work of our Basotho partners at TTL. We serve as the voice of TTL in North America and work to spread the message that the high-impact care TTL provides saves lives in Lesotho, one child at a time.

2. TTL Lesotho

Who We Are Helping

TTL was started in 2004 by former Peace Corps Volunteers Ken and Colleen Storen in an effort to create an effective long-term strategy to help children orphaned or infected by HIV/AIDS in the rural highlands of Lesotho. Lesotho is currently experiencing an HIV/AIDS rate estimated at 25% of the population. In addition to this crippling HIV epidemic, Lesotho’s highland villages experience food insecurity due to climate change and short growing seasons, contributing to high rates of childhood malnutrition. Exacerbating these immense challenges, the mountain villages are extremely under-served in terms of health, nutritional, and economic services. The National AIDS Commission recognizes TTL as the only organization exclusively dedicated to caring for orphaned and vulnerable children in all of Mokhotlong. TTL assists children in their early critical and formative years, which provides a solid base for a longer, happier, and healthier life.

Focus: Mothers & Children

How We Are Helping

Since its inception in 2004, TTL has directly supported more than 5,200 children. TTL has also provided countless families with support, ensuring that communities are educated and empowered to care for their children.

TTL conducts several programs that provide services to children, their families, and their communities.

Outreach and Safe Home: TTL’s Outreach program works to provide support for children in the community through home visiting and the Safe Home is a place where children with the most severe cases of malnutrition or health issues such as HIV/AIDS, TB, etc. come to receive extensive, around-the-clock care and treatment until they can be reunited with their families.

Community Nutrition Education: TTL seeks to educate the community about nutrition with the goal of helping families identify areas where their nutritional practices could be sustainably improved. Through our vegetable production program, we provide households with the tools to facilitate small-scale farming, empowering community members to take a stand in helping address food insecurity and working to combat malnutrition in their villages. Through this program, we educate community members about the importance of good nutrition, allowing them to utilize the information to make educated changes to their children’s diets. To further this program, we also host cooking demonstrations through our Nutrition Clubs. This program aims to promote economically viable, locally sourced, and sustainable nutritious food options for children through education. We also provide direct support through food packages. At each event, we conduct wellness assessments to identify those in need of TTL‘s services and provide cooking demonstrations using locally-sourced ingredients for families to prepare for their families throughout the month.

Early Childhood Education (ECE): TTL’s ECE Program works directly with the schools to provide monthly health check-ups, meal assistance, and educational resources. This program fosters community development and early childhood education by improving access to education in rural Lesotho, empowering community members, and providing access to health and nutrition services for children under five.