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The Elderly Groaning Under Burden of Aids
By Patrick Mathangani, The East African Standard
Kenya
December 28, 2004
But her face is still a mask of worry and she is not sure where to get the next meal for the orphans.
Since 1998, three members of her family have died from Aids-related illnesses, leaving her to care for three grandchildren.
"Losing three people in one family is a painful thing. Now, these children have no one else to look up to but me," Wangui, a widow, said at her home in Othaya, Nyeri
First, it was her son who died, followed by his wife in 2002. They left behind two orphans.
Tragedy struck again last July when her daughter died and left a third child.
She feels that the burden, coming at a time when she should have sat back and enjoyed her old age, is too heavy for her.
"I have to wake up early everyday and prepare them for school." The eldest of her grandchildren, named after her, completed her primary education this year and Wangui is worried because she has no school fees.
"My coffee bushes do not fetch anything these days. I do not know if she will join secondary school," Wangui added.
She is among millions of elderly people in Africa who have to care for Aids orphans.
The Ministry of Health estimates that 2.2 million people have died of Aids and have left behind 1.5 million orphans. Many of these are in the care of grandparents, who are too poor and have no means of bringing them up properly.
The number of elderly people caring for such orphans is not known, but a spokesman for the National Aids Control Council (NACC), Mr Abel Nyagwa, said it could be over 500,000.
Kenya, however, lacks a policy on elderly people, and they are often left to fend for the children on their own. The burden borne by the elderly is indeed enormous. In addition to catering for the orphans, everyday needs, they require schooling as well as health care.
Many people in Kenya live on less than a dollar a day and care barely afford to buy expensive Aids drugs. But Nyagwa said the council was working with the Ministry of Home Affairs, which has worked out a policy to assist the orphans and neglected children.
NACC has set up special projects known as Rapid Results Initiative (RRI), which seeks to see positive changes among the beneficiaries within 100 days.
"In areas where we have such centres, children and the elderly come for counselling and are encouraged to test their HIV status," Nyagwa said last week.
One of these , he said, is the Cana Rehabilitation Centre in Nairobi's industrial area. A Voluntary Counselling Centre(VCT) centre is situated within the camp for easy reach.
One of the results of these centres is that the number of young girls turning up for testing has risen tremendously, Nyagwa added.
"Most of the organisations funded by us are aimed to assist orphans and helping the elderly start small businesses to support them," he said.
The RRI is funded by the World Bank and was adopted in Kenya after it worked well in Eritrea.
But HelpAge Kenya, an organisation caring for the elderly, says they are often neglected. Mr Job Ochieng, a programmes co-ordinator at HelpAge, says anti-AIDSs messages have not targeted the elderly.
"The campaigns have concentrated on the youth because it is assumed they are the ones at risk of contracting HIV," Ochieng said.
"But the elderly influence our behaviour when we interact with them. They are the custodians of our culture and if we do not think about them, we will fail," he said.
For instance, the ABC (Abstain, Be faithful, use Condoms) concept, which is widely used in Kenya, only targets the sexually active bracket of teenagers and people in their 50s.
"What about older people caring for orphans? If they are not aware of how HIV is transmitted, how will they bring them up?" Ochieng posed.
He cites the tradition of wife inheritance practised in Nyanza Province, saying if the elderly people are not convinced it is dangerous, they will go on supporting the custom.
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