Ambassador Nolan and Minister Ramatlapeng cut the ribbon as members of the media look on

Embassy Opens new Offices

On Thursday January 28^th, 2010, U.S. Ambassador Robert B. Nolan officially opened a block of newly built offices at the Embassy.

The new Office space has a long history within the U.S. Mission in Lesotho, from 1977 when the first USAID Mission Director was assigned to Maseru; it served as USAID office space until 1995 when the USAID closed 27 of its Missions worldwide, including its Mission to Lesotho due to budget constraints. Immediately following the closure, the Embassy converted the former USAID offices to a warehouse to support its operations.

In July 2008, the Embassy completed phase I of its conversion of the former USAID offices, and now warehouse space to the initial on-compound offices of the PEPFAR and MCC teams. As the PEPFAR team continued to grow, it became apparent that phase II would be essential. And the completion of Phase II was celebrated with a ribbon cutting ceremony.

The new PEPFAR offices provide a professional working environment for approximately 25 staff members from four different US government agencies working under the umbrella of PEPFAR, i.e. Dept of State, USAID, Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and Department Of Defense (DoD).