Vekile Sesha stood outside the rusted gates of a garment factory in the industrial district of Lesotho’s capital, Maseru, willing her luck to change. Four months earlier, the blue jeans factory where she worked nearby abruptly shut, blaming plummeting demand from the Western brands it supplied amid the pandemic.
She had loved the job fiercely: “I was doing something that was needed by the world.” Her monthly paycheck of 2,400 loti ($150) supported a constellation of family members in her village. “Because of me, they never slept on an empty stomach,” she said.
