Grannies Who Are Unsung Heroes in the Fight Against HIV/Aids 

By Mildred Ngesa, The Nation (Nairobi)

Kenya

August 24, 2007

Deep within the Kibera slums in Nairobi, in a ramshackle, Domitila heaved her last, with eyes full of hope for her grandchildren's future.
So determined was Domitila that even when another of her children succumbed to Aids 17 years ago, she took over and bottle-fed the orphaned four-month old baby boy named Silas.

Silas, now 17 years old, is Domitila's eldest grandchild. The brave young man literally took it upon himself to nurse, feed, clean and take care of his ailing grandmother to the end.

Like the rest of his siblings and cousins - 11 in number - Silas must have been returning the favour of a gracious old woman who nurtured, protected and fed them after they were orphaned by HIV and Aids.

Domitila Achieng' Obera stood little chance of survival. Her withered body, battered by old age and an accident, died on May 25, 2007.

"She died from poverty. She also died from the herculean task thrust upon her by the Aids scourge. Not because she was the one suffering from the disease. No. Because she was mother to several children ravaged by the disease," said Mr Steve Ombogo, a social worker in the slum.

Domitila belongs to the club of unsung heroes whose contribution and sacrifice in the war against HIV and Aids has largely gone unnoticed.

She died, only two days before her dream of seeing her own house in the village come to fruition.

One of the many

But Domitila was only one of the many grandmothers risking and sometimes sacrificing their lives to give their orphaned grandchildren a lifeline.

Forgotten and dejected, the grandmothers, dubbed the HIV and Aids Grannies, could be the forgotten link in the success story recently published by the National Aids Control Council (NACC).

But all is not lost. The world may soon learn about their contribution to the Aids pandemic when a film in their honour hits the big screen. The movie is scheduled to premiere at the Bangkok Film Festival in October.

It all began when an international organisation, Voicelesschildren.org, in conjunction with award-winning Kenyan photographer Felix Masi, perhaps too stunned by the suffering of the sickly and bed-ridden Domitila, produced the film titled The Grandmother's Tribe in her honour.

As the Saturday Nation recently established, many more grandmothers who deserve the same acclaim are holed up in the sprawling slums, some too old to remember their age.

Instead of whiling away their sunset years in villages, the grandmothers are wilting under the weight of caring for their grandchildren orphaned by Aids.
National statistics indicate that Kenya has 2.4 million orphans. Of these, HIV and Aids accounts for 1.2 million.

Because of poverty, stretching over rural villages and almost 90 per cent of the urban areas, the HIV and Aids orphans are leaning even more heavily on the care and support of grandparents, in particular grandmothers.

With grandfathers and fathers missing for one reason or another, the factor of feminisation of the disease becomes clearer.

Some of the grandmothers are left taking care of great grandchildren orphaned in the same circumstances.

Mr Ombogo, a social worker with Stara Kicap Rescue Centre which accommodates mostly HIV and Aids orphans in Kibera's Karanja area, says there is need to pay special attention to such grandmothers.

"Life becomes more difficult for them if they are forced to start fending for their families. Most of them are too old to do simple domestic chores but since their children have died and left children behind, they have no choice but to get up and look for food, medication and shelter," says Mr Ombogo.

Domitila lived in Kibera's Lindi area. Injured from a fall at a bus station in 2003, the toothless grandmother, described by many visitors as warm, friendly and committed to her orphaned grandchildren, had only one dream - to see them grow up and fend for themselves.

She, like many grandmothers in a similar situation, dreamt of one day returning to the village in the rural area to "die in peace".

By the time, Voicelesschildren.org encountered her, Domitila's dream to have her own home in the village came close. The organisation commissioned the building of a house for her back in her village in Nyanza's Kano plains.
Domitila was taken back home to her new house, but sadly, travelled there on her last journey on earth having died two days before the scheduled day.

Domitila had lost six of her children to Aids - five daughters and a son. The children in turn left behind children - the 11 orphans - under the grandma's care.

And in typical denial as is still the norm with most families affected and infected by HIV and Aids, not once did Domitila openly reveal what her children died of.

"She used to refer to many things in parables," recalled photographer Masi, who spent a lot of time with the old woman in the last days of her life.

Sharing the same experience and aspirations of one day returning to the village to live in her own house is another grandmother, Kanotu Mumo, who is too old to remember her age.

Stooping and with a trademark toothless grin with feeble wrinkled hands, grandma Mumo, commonly referred to as Cucu, is hopeful that before the curtain falls on her, she will lay her head in her own house back in Kitui.

Cucu's case is more stunning. Not only is she taking care of her grandchildren, she also has great grandchildren in her care, all of whom have been orphaned by Aids.

It is even harder trying to establish from Cucu how many of her children and grandchildren have succumbed to the disease.

Bleak future

In a stammering plea, she laments her bleak future wondering where the current generation will go with "that disease amongst us".

Cucu reckons that "that disease" has claimed all her children.
Even though the National Aids Control Council is yet to research and report on the plight of grandchildren, the matter is now being seriously considered as an offshoot to a major crisis.

"We are identifying grounds for orphans and their guardians and finding ways of how we can provide them with food and other necessities. We currently have two programmes in Kisumu dealing specifically with grannies and elderly people charged with the duty of taking care of Aids orphans" says Mr Peter Mutie, the head of communications at NACC.

Mr Mutie says the council is developing a programme that will encourage orphans to be brought up in a family set-up as opposed to charity centres to ensure stable up-bringing for the children.

In this case, therefore, many of the guardians left behind to care for the Aids orphans will mostly be the elderly, especially grandparents.

"These specific grandmothers may not be the majority of guardians taking care of the Aids orphans but may indeed be a significant number who require special support and attention. They are our priority," added Mr Mutie.

Copyright © Global Action on Aging
Terms of Use  |  Privacy Policy  |  Contact Us