Firewood burns under two large pots in a clearing in a mountain village near Maseru, Lesotho's capital. One holds rice sent from Taiwan, the other vegetables. Children come with their bowls, sit shoulder to shoulder on the ground and eat while the food is hot.

Volunteers cook for 60 of them every day. For years, two local women, Matangiso and Malinter, have led mothers in the community in looking after orphans and children in need.

"We also teach them to love and help each other," Matangiso said.

Land is life

She also takes the children into the fields, spade in hand, and shows them how to plant. "Land is life," she tells them. She asks villagers to learn alongside the children, so that they grow up valuing the ground they live on and able to support themselves.

Malinter's hope is narrower: that the children in their care grow up healthy and happy, and do well at school.

A visit for a man who cannot walk

The two also call on elderly people living alone, cleaning their homes and sitting with them. Haleket can no longer walk; both his legs are diseased. He used to manage his own daily life. Now he depends on Malinter.

"She looks after me as if I were family," he said.

Most days the work is the same — a fire lit, two pots filled, a row of seedlings watered, a floor swept. The cooking starts again the next morning, and the same two women are there.

Written by Yu-Chen Pan (潘俞臻)