NGO Forum on Ageing 5-9 April 2002

BEING ELDERLY AND RESPONSIBLE

By : NGO Forum on Ageing
April 6, 2002

The social reality of HIV/AIDS goes beyond the affected themselves. On several occasions grandparents have to be parents of their own grandchildren and, at the same time, they have to look after their ill children. The figures speak of about five million elderly people , only in Africa, who keep the family core together. The young South African Paballo Allen, affected by the virus, collaborates with the Red Cross of her country in a program which, according to her, “ helps me not think of death and carry out productive things”.

Q. What is the task you carry out?

A. My task is helping the grandparents who have to take care of their grandchildren.

In general, they are such daily tasks as washing or feeding them. There is also an activity which consists of teaching them how to work in a small orchard.

Q. How does a person affected of HIV/AIDS live in South Africa?

A. Generally, there is a fear of manifesting the illness. The task of Red Cross volunteers is to make the integration of the affected easy and, at the same time, to make their relatives accept the illness and learn how to live with it.

Q. In your own case?

A. I have a four-year-old daughter who is HIV positive. My grandmother, who is more than 80 years old, takes care of us and always knows how to react to the crisis that the virus causes.