Mothers fight to protect children from drugs as ‘hotspotting’ takes hold in Lesotho

Mamphana Molotsi, left and Pontso Tumisi, who founded Mokhosi oa Mangoana (A Mother’s Cry) to help and advise women whose children are taking drugs. Photograph: Silence Charumbira

Pontso Tumisi remembers seeing crystal meth for the first time in her daughter’s bedroom several years ago. When her daughter said the crystals were bath salts, she believed her. Now, she regrets that naivety.

Tumisi says a lack of knowledge about drugs among parents and guardians has allowed many children’s use of dangerous substances to go undetected.