In the mountains of Mokhotlong, in the remote highlands of the Kingdom of Lesotho, a young woman wakes up carrying three burdens that no person should have to bear.

She lives in one of the countries with the highest HIV burden on Earth, a burden that falls hardest on girls and young women like her. She navigates communities where gender-based violence is not the exception but an everyday risk: nearly one in five women in Mokhotlong has experienced sexual violence. And she is among the one in five girls aged 15 to 19 in her district who has been pregnant, too often before she had the chance to complete her education or shape her own future.

These are not separate crises. They are three threads of the same knot, what UNAids calls the Triple Threat — limiting access to health, opportunity and equality of adolescent girls and young women across Lesotho.

This week, we gathered in Mokhotlong to say: no more and not alone.

A crisis that demands more than words

The statistics alone demand urgent attention.

Lesotho consistently records one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world. But the headline numbers conceal a more specific injustice: it is adolescent girls and young women who bear a disproportionate share of new infections.

Despite this, less than half of all young women in Mokhotlong, just 46.8%, have adequate knowledge of how HIV is prevented and transmitted. Among young men, it is even lower: 35.7%.

The geography compounds everything. Mokhotlong is one of Lesotho's most remote districts, a rugged, mountainous terrain where 30.9% of women travel more than two hours to reach the nearest health facility and 78.7% rely on non-motorised transport to get there. More than half of women, 58.4%, report barriers to accessing care and child marriage sits at 22.8%.

These are not numbers on a page. They are the lived realities of real girls in a real place. And they are preventable.

Why South-South cooperation is the right response

When we speak of global health partnerships, it is easy to default to familiar narratives: wealthier nations extending a hand to those in need. But the partnership we are celebrating is something different and significant.

China and Lesotho share more than diplomatic ties. They share a commitment to the principle that development must be led by communities, rooted in dignity and built on genuine partnership.

The China International Development Cooperation Agency (Cidca), through the Global Development and South-South Cooperation Fund, has made it possible for UNAids Lesotho to launch a two-year, $2.24 million (R36m) initiative that is designed not to create dependency but to build lasting capacity.

This is what South-South cooperation looks like in practice. It is not about aid. It is about solidarity. It is about two nations, with their own histories of struggle and resilience, standing together in recognition of a shared humanity.

Africa does not lack solutions. It lacks the sustained investment to bring the solutions to scale. The launch is a contribution to changing that.

The Triple Threat Elimination Project works on three integrated tracks and because the problems are integrated, so must be the solutions.

First, we are strengthening health systems. Too many healthcare workers in Mokhotlong lack the training and tools to deliver integrated services that address HIV, gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and maternal care in one place. We are changing that by investing in the people on the front lines so they can respond to the whole person, not just the presenting symptom.

Second, we are supporting community-led responses. The evidence is unambiguous: behaviour change that lasts is behaviour change that comes from within. We are working with community health workers, peer educators, village health workers and organisations to build the kind of trust and reach that no outside agency can manufacture.

Third, we are improving access to services by providing commodities, equipment and infrastructure to ensure that distance and poverty are no longer barriers to survival. A girl in the most remote valley of Mokhotlong deserves the same standard of care as anyone else.

Together, the strategies will serve 14 395 adolescent girls and young women, 3 022 children and more than 3 000 indirect beneficiaries, including men, boys and community members who are essential partners in any meaningful change.

What Lesotho's experience offers is a model. An integrated model. A community-owned model. A model built on the recognition that you cannot address HIV in isolation from gender-based violence, reproductive health in isolation from education or health outcomes in isolation from economic and social conditions.

When we speak about the Triple Threat, we must never lose sight of who we are speaking about.

She is not a statistic. She is a daughter, a sister, a student, a dreamer. She is navigating a world that has placed barriers in front of her that she did not choose and does not deserve. And she is resilient, often extraordinarily so, in ways that should inspire rather than excuse our inaction.

The project will not solve everything. Two years and $2.24m cannot undo generations of structural inequality. But it can make a difference for thousands of real girls in a real place. It can prove a model. It can build momentum. And it can send a message of hope that resonates far beyond Mokhotlong.

The message is simple: you are seen. You are not alone. And this time, we are not looking away.

This project is implemented by UNAids Lesotho with support from China's Cidca, in partnership with the ministry of health, UNFPA, Riders for Health, the district health management team and community-based organisations across the Mokhotlong district. The project runs from November 2025 to October 2027.

Yang Xiaokun is the ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the Kingdom of Lesotho. Alankar Malviya is the UNAids multicountry director for Lesotho, Eswatini and South Africa.