Puleng Hae (20 images)

Puleng Hae, a twenty five year old LLB graduate doesn't quite fit what one expects of a woman in rural Lesotho. Women in Lesotho who finish their schooling, much less obtain a degree, are rare in this impoverished southern African kingdom. Despite her qualification, when her husband Taelo - a member of the Royal Mounted Police - got a transfer to the small town of Teyateyaneng (TY to all), she found herself unable to find work.

Despite Puleng's education, the challenges she...
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Puleng Hae, a twenty five year old LLB graduate doesn't quite fit what one expects of a woman in rural Lesotho. Women in Lesotho who finish their schooling, much less obtain a degree, are rare in this impoverished southern African kingdom. Despite her qualification, when her husband Taelo - a member of the Royal Mounted Police - got a transfer to the small town of Teyateyaneng (TY to all), she found herself unable to find work.

Despite Puleng's education, the challenges she faced during her pregnancy were the same as for any other mother. She was heavily pregnant when she woke up early from an uncomfortable night on a freezing Saturday morning in the middle of winter. She was just mildly disconcerted at the sight of blood on the sheets. Puleng was about 3 weeks away from delivering her second child, and an early labour wasn't completely unexpected.

The bleeding soon became heavier though, and by 8 am, her increasingly worried husband, decided to take her to the local hospital where she had been going for her antenatal check-ups. "I wasn't scared," recalls Puleng, "But I was afraid for my baby, it was really heavy bleeding." They had reason to be concerned, because at the beginning of her second pregnancy, Puleng had tested positive during a routine HIV test.
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