On August 28th the Queen of Lesotho, Her Majesty Masenate Seeiso, honoured the DREAM programme’s centre at Criança with her presence during an official visit to Mozambique.

Lesotho’s Minister for the Family and Social Action who had already met the Saint Egidio Community at the DREAM conference two years ago was part of the delegation accompanying the Queen.

The visit took place in an atmosphere of great cordiality and interest and the Queen was able to appreciate the haven of beauty and excellence that the centre represents for many children in the country who have AIDS.
Crowds of children accompanied by their parents or grandparents waited to welcome the Queen with applause and cheering.

The Queen dwelled upon the fact that she had been particularly surprised during her visit by the presence of the molecular biology laboratory. During her official speech of thanks she explained that although Lesotho has pediatric centres for the treatment of AIDS none of them has a laboratory of the quality of that at the Criança Centre in Maputo.

With regard to the laboratories in particular, she expressed the desire that operators from Lesotho may be trained by DREAM in order that her country can also reach standards of excellence in the treatment of AIDS.

She asserted that, much as the battle against AIDS is full of challenges, it must continue following the best models such as DREAM.

In conclusion she also highlighted the importance of providing the children and adults undergoing treatment with nutritional supplements.
 

At the end of the visit a group of children and activists gave the Queen an EU DREAM Movement T-shirt and a book dedicated to the Programme as a memento of her visit.