On joining the military one obtains basic training as the offer of support, advice and education that will increase personal knowledge and awareness. The training aims to support soldiers' personal development and long-term planning.
It has been a fact that the majority of retirees as they return to civilian life become favourable members of their community due to tolerable behaviour. A military career offers a well-founded basis for personal planning and development.
It further assists one to become more independent, spirited and confident to successfully meet the challenges that they will face in Service and afterwards as a civilian. In our communities when soldiers retire, they become close to the chiefs and favoured by the society for exercising competence in administration.
The training on the one hand fail to model other individuals for various reasons.
Other members may totally deviate because from the first day of their basic training they never find a real attitude of "I will not fail", but that of "this is not easy life, I don't belong here". One soldier recalled his first day in the training school, something he build his attitude upon. He saw what he believed to be the youngest serving soldier that motivated him to be who he is. Find an attitude of "as long as that boy is serving I will serve" and you will be successful. With that attitude in mind you will always win regardless of the ups-and-downs.
LEGAL ASSISTANCE SERVICES
he organisation has a considerable number of Advocates who freely provide services to the soldiers during Court Martial case proceedings. The military Advocates further provide legal advice to the serving members in Civil Cases where members are tried in civilian courts. EXTERNAL SUPPORT SERVICES The LDF enjoy support from external companies rendered in a form of recreation facilities for the exclusive use of the general public although access is given to the army family members. The facilities include among others tennis courts and gymnasium.
TRANSITION PERIOD TO CIVILIAN LIFE
2019 saw the Lesotho Defence Force arranging with various companies to educate, advice and provide support to service personnel who are on the verge of joining civilian life.
Every member retires when his time comes to an end and therefore the army has decided to tune its members to appreciate and get prepared for that time. Currently the army is sensitizing those members who are left with less than three years.
However, in the long run the focus will be to educate every member upon joining the army. The LDF through the office of Human Resource and Administration approached a considerable number of companies and individual experts in various fields, with professional expertise to provide education to enlighten our members on how they should approach their retirement and deciding how best they can invest their monies.
The army learned that when people retire, they get confused for the fact that they are not prepared. This can be a challenging time and requires a period of adjustment to avoid triggering a number of emotions from happiness to anxiety and fear of unknown.
Worth noting is the fact that it may not just be the Service leavers who may be affected; it may also impact upon family and friends. It is therefore important that while in service, our interaction with members of the community be cordially maintained.
INQUIRING ABOUT RELATIVES WHEREABOUT
The Lesotho Defence Force provides medical support service to ensure the safety of army personnel everywhere particularly in the war zone. However, under normal circumstances individual soldiers are capable of attending to minor injuries since they acquired first aid skills in their initial training at recruitment stage.
The first aiders are, among others, capable of applying a tourniquet, maintenance of an airway to help a casualty breathe. The military hospital has further trained Medics and attaches them to the infantry battalions, during deployment, who carries additional medical equipment.The Medics, other than first help, prioritises patients for evacuation according to medical need.
The military hospital has its focus to combating the prevalence of HIV/AIDs in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. It has been conducting studies and providing education to create awareness to service members to reduce the high numbers of new HIV/AIDs infection. The initiative has proven a success due to decreasing numbers of AIDS related cases, following the 2017 study conducted in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, sponsored by the US.
