The long pilgrimage across Spain will be challenging for the Waterloo grandmothers.

Yet the women know they’re lucky to be able to walk the famous El Camino trail, and the backpacks they’ll carry are only a small burden.

Their journey will be easy compared to the daily struggles of grandmothers in Africa raising their grandchildren orphaned by HIV/AIDS.

“We’re grandmothers and we can afford to do it,” said Carol Schmidt. “African grandmothers can’t even afford to feed their grandchildren.”

And those grandmothers walk everywhere for even the most basic necessities of life. 

“They walk for their water every morning,” said Mary Ann Gilhuly. 

That’s why the two are walking to raise money for a charity that helps grandmothers in sub-Saharan Africa. 

The women are both members of Omas Siskona, meaning Grandmothers Together. The Kitchener-Waterloo charity is part of the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign, a branch of the Stephen Lewis Foundation dedicated to raising awareness and money for Africa’s grandmothers with more than 220 groups across Canada.

About 13 million children have been orphaned by HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa, where almost one in 10 children have lost at least one parent to AIDS, according to the Stephen Lewis Foundation. In areas severely affected, half of all older people care for HIV-positive adults or vulnerable children.

As Schmidt, 70, and Gilhuly, 67, walk the ancient pilgrim’s route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, they’ll be thinking of their fellow grandmothers in Africa. They’re about a third of the way to their fundraising goal of $10,000.

“It’s the whole idea of being in solidarity,” Schmidt said.

The 750-kilometre route will take the pair at least seven weeks, walking at a relaxed pace and including days for rest. As the Sept. 6 start date rapidly approaches, the pair are training with regular long walks — complete with loaded backpacks — and sessions with a trainer to strengthen their entire body for the endeavour. 

Gilhuly is a hiker, Schmidt a regular walker. Both are eager to join the path across Spain through mountains, woods and meadows that has been travelled by pilgrims for centuries. They’ll follow the markers, staying mostly in hostels along the way and getting stamps in their pilgrim’s journal along the way. 

“It’s a life-altering experience,” Schmidt said.

Rain or sun, they’ll keep walking, although Schmidt said they’ve made an important pact: “We both decided if we’re tired, we say it to each other.”

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