A Dream That Refused to Die: How Relebohile Found Her Way Back to School

By Reentseng Phephetho, Communications & Digital Officer

In a remote village in Mafeteng, 18-year-old Relebohile once watched her dream of becoming a nurse slowly disappear. Today, she is back in school—and dreaming again.

Every morning, Relebohile used to wake up to the sound of her peers preparing for school. School bags were packed. Uniforms were worn. Children walked along the village paths, talking and laughing as they made their way to class.

But Relebohile had a different routine. She would pick up the ropes and head out to herd her grandmother’s animals. For a young girl who had always dreamed of becoming a nurse, this was not the life she had imagined.

Relebohile, now 18, lives with her grandmother, ‘Mathabo, in a remote village in Mafeteng. She lost her mother at a young age and was raised under the care of her father. But in 2024, while she was in Grade 9 at a school in Mohale’s Hoek, her father told her that he could no longer afford her school fees and other school needs.

He had remarried following the death of Relebohile’s mother, and the decision meant that Relebohile had to leave school and return home. For a girl who had built her hopes around education, the news was devastating.

“I felt my life ending right then. I did not see why I was brought to life if my own father could do that to me,” Relebohile recalls.

Her dream of becoming a nurse suddenly felt impossibly far away.

When the dream seemed to disappear

With a rope in her hand and a dream in her heart, Relebohile tends to the donkey she herded every day

Back home, Relebohile’s grandmother could not afford to send her back to school. ‘Mathabo had no stable source of income, and the household depended on the little they had—including sheep, donkeys and other animals.

Relebohile began her new daily routine: herding animals.

She did it to help her grandmother, but each day away from school was a painful reminder of what she had lost.

“Most days, it was hard to even get out of the house in the morning, seeing my peers carrying their school bags going to school while mine was to take ropes and go herd the animals.”

Throughout 2024 and 2025, Relebohile remained out of school. Slowly, she began to believe that perhaps this was how her life would remain.

“I had now accepted this is how my life looks like for the rest of it. My dream vanished with each rising day.”

She became increasingly withdrawn. She felt ashamed to interact with her peers, fearing that they would judge her for no longer being in school. But beneath the disappointment and uncertainty, one thing remained unchanged: Relebohile still wanted to learn.

And that desire would eventually become the beginning of a new chapter.

A community that noticed

Relebohile and her grandmother, ‘Mathabo, share a quiet moment outside their home—a place where hope and dreams continue to grow

In 2025, Relebohile’s situation was identified by the Community Council Child Protection Team (CCCPT). The CCCPT is a community-based child protection structure that safeguards the rights of the children withing communities. This structure got capacitated through World Vision International Lesotho’s European Union-funded Accelerating Action for Eliminating Child Labour and Forced Labour (AECFL) Project.

The project works to prevent and eliminate child labour, forced labour and human trafficking by strengthening awareness, community structures and referral mechanisms that help identify children at risk and connect them with appropriate support. Through the project, community members and stakeholders are capacitated to recognise child protection concerns and respond appropriately.

Relebohile’s case demonstrated why these structures matter.

After her situation was identified, World Vision International Lesotho, together with the Ministry of Labour and Employment and the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Social Development, visited Relebohile and her grandmother to assess her circumstances.

What stood out was not only the hardship she had experienced, but the determination that remained within her.

Relebohile wanted to go back to school.

She had not given up on her dream.

A second chance

Relebohile is back where she belongs—at school, quietly turning the pages of her book and one step closer to her dream of becoming a nurse

Through the Department of Social Development, Relebohile was supported with a grant. She was also assisted in obtaining new identification documents—documents she had previously been without—and was enrolled at a school in Mafeteng.

Then, in January 2026, something Relebohile had almost stopped believing in happened.

She went back to school. This time, she entered Grade 8.

“I was happy and in disbelief at the same time to hear that I am going back to school because I had lost hope and believed I was denied my right to education.”

For Relebohile, returning to school was more than simply putting on a uniform and carrying a school bag again.

It was the return of a dream.

It was a reminder that her circumstances did not have to determine her future.

And for her grandmother, it was a moment of immense joy.

For years, ‘Mathabo had watched the pain on her granddaughter’s face as she stayed home while other children went to school.

“I could not believe my partially hearing ears when I was told Relebohile had been accepted at a school and that she was finally going back to school.”

Her greatest wish now is simple: that Relebohile works hard, gets an education and one day achieves the dream she has carried since childhood.

The dream lives again

In the second quarter of 2026, Relebohile passed her schoolwork well.

For her grandmother, her progress is a source of pride.

For Relebohile, it is proof that the dream she thought had disappeared can still become reality.

“I wish to be educated. My dream still stands, now with more purpose because I wish to help my grandmother out of this poverty because she raised me with love.”

Today, Relebohile is no longer waking up wondering why she was denied an opportunity to learn.

She wakes up with a school bag.

She walks alongside her peers.

She sits in a classroom.

She studies.

She dreams.

And somewhere in that remote village in Mafeteng, a young girl who once believed her dream had vanished is beginning to believe again.

Her journey is a powerful reminder that when communities are equipped to identify children at risk, when systems work together, and when the right support reaches a child at the right time, a lost opportunity can become a second chance.

Relebohile’s story is not only about returning to school.

It is about restoring hope, reclaiming a dream and giving a child the opportunity to shape her own future.

And her dream?

To become a nurse.

This time, she is walking towards it.