In the Healthy Youth Program in Lesotho many Peace Corps Volunteers work directly or indirectly with herd boys (Balisana in Sesotho) through outreach projects, teaching at night schools, camps, and more. Boys as young as five tend livestock in the isolation of Lesotho’s remote highland country and around 15,000 herd boys leave their families and homes to live in primitive huts, enduring the extreme weather conditions of mountain cattle-posts. A study sponsored by the International Labour Organisation, found that 29 percent of herd boys had not received any formal education at all, and in one particular district, that figure was as high as 62 percent. Deprived of a formal and social education, many boys do not rejoin their communities until their late teens. This makes it nearly impossible for them to break out of the cycle of poverty and combat urgent health and development issues impacting Lesotho, such as HIV/AIDS. The nomadic nature of the balisana means they are also isolated from national program and health services, such as VMMC (voluntary male medical circumcision) and PEPFAR sponsored Millennium Challenge Corporation clinics offering HIV testing and counseling services. Unlike other children their age, herd boys are not educated about HIV infection, so are at an extremely high risk of contracting HIV. (Source: Sentabale NGO) HIV Calendar