Aids leaves Africa's grannies to raise children

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

This is such a poignant article, and the subject such a huge challenge! It's

great to read about some of the efforts to be of help, and let me also add

another: a film project called " A Grandmother's Tribe " , which features Kenyan

grandmothers.

The Kenyan debut of the film will be in February 2008. Premieres have taken

place in New Zealand (home of the director, Qiujing Wong, of Borderless

Productions) and Vancouver, Canada (where Qiujing used to live, and where there

has been much support for the film). For more news and info:

http://www.agrandmotherstribe.com

The film has already raised $50,000 for Kenyan grandmothers, and is in the

process of making a world tour. If anyone is interested in helping with this

venture--booking a showing, becoming a supporter, donating, telling

others--please contact Qiujing Wong (qiujing@...). See

also

http://www.borderlessproductions.com

Felix Masi in Kenya (http://www.voicelesschildren.org) can also be contacted

(felixmasius@...), and I too can put you in touch with the

producers/director (kaippg@...), so feel free to be in touch.

" A Grandmother's Tribe " is linking up with the Foundation, which

is working on a project related to grandmothers. For more on this see their url:

http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/grandmothers.htm

Here's to becoming one tribe in support of its own, and bravo to all of the

courageous and caring grandmothers (grandfathers too!) of the world! Janet

Aids-Africa Kenya: Aids leaves Africa's grannies to raise children

>

>

>Aids leaves Africa's grannies to raise children

>Barry Moody | Nairobi, Kenya

>30 November 2007 11:59

>

>Skinny and gap-toothed, her nose smudged with black dust, grandmother

>Kanotu Mumo sorts charcoal into small pots for sale on the stoop of

>her slum hut.

>

>Mumo is an " Aids granny " in Kibera, Nairobi, one of Africa's biggest

>slums. Like grandmothers all over Africa, they have been left to fend

>for orphans after their own children and husbands died.

>

>Her hut, stacked with sacks of charcoal, measures 3m by 2,5m and it

>is too dark inside to see more than a few centimetres, even in the

>middle of the day.

>

>Somehow she shelters four grandchildren, two great grandchildren and

>the child of a dead relative, who sleep on mattresses and two beds.

>There is no toilet or running water.

>

>According to United Nations figures, at least 12-million children in

>Africa have lost one or both parents because of Aids. This accounts

>for 80% of all Aids orphans in the developing world.

>

>The number of orphans in Africa has increased by 50% since 1990 while

>falling in other regions. The UN says there will be 53-million by

>2010, about 30% of them bereaved by Aids.

>

>The burden of this disaster is borne by extended families, most often

>grandmothers, who might have otherwise dreamed of returning to their

>home villages for retirement at the end of a tough life.

>

>Kanotu Mumo moved to Kibera, home to 800 000 people, when her husband

>died about 25 years ago in eastern Kenya. " I can't remember. It has

>been so long. When my husband died the relatives threw me out and

>sold the land. "

>

>Unlike many of the grandmothers, doleful and worn down by their fate,

>Mumo smiles and jokes. She says she cannot remember her age. As she

>talks, two teenage granddaughters come and go.

>

>Her story is typical of the everyday tragedies of Kibera. Two

>daughters and a son died of Aids. Another son was stoned to death by

>a mob after he was caught stealing. " I am embarrassed to talk about

>it but it was due to the unemployment. "

>

>She lives close to the railway line that runs through the sprawling

>slum, acting both as a pedestrian thoroughfare and place for traders

>to lay out shoes and clothes.

>

>She sells her charcoal -- the slum's primary fuel -- for a few

>shillings profit, after buying from a nearby wholesaler who carries

>it to her hut.

>

>School

>Like other grandmothers interviewed by Reuters, Kanotu Mumo comes to

>the Stara school in Kibera to clean twice a week. Their grandchildren

>attend the school and are fed from huge vats of steaming maize

>porridge and beans.

>

>The project, supplied and funded by Dutch charity ChildsLife

>International, the UN World Food Programme and Kenyan aid agency Feed

>the Children, was started seven years ago by a group of Kibera

>mothers, after friends died and left them to look after their

>children.

>

>The school on the edge of Kibera houses more than 500 lively

>children, 70% of them orphans, dressed in green uniforms.

>

>More than 30 of the children are HIV positive and receive

>antiretrovirals from a nearby clinic in the slum, supplied against

>vouchers from the school.

>

>The small size of the premises means classes are noisy and

>overcrowded, with up to 80 children of mixed ages. The school, headed

>by dynamic Kibera resident phine Mumo, has proven skilful in

>raising support.

>

>Singer Harry Belafonte, Barbara Bush, mother of United States

>President Bush and actress Drew Barrymore have been backers.

>

>Without their grandmothers and projects such as Stara, many more

>orphans in Kibera and elsewhere would end up as glue-sniffing street

>children or child prostitutes.

>

>phine Mumo says that when the mothers started the school, they

>brought in children who had been raped as they went door-to-door

>begging for food.

>

>Survive for the children

>Many of the grandmothers are themselves weakened by HIV as well as

>old age, making it even harder for them to feed their charges.

>

>Peris Owuor (50) is a Kibera grandmother looking after seven

>grandchildren. " Sometimes my body does not feel good and I cannot go

>to look for food, " she said.

>

>Owuor, whose husband died of Aids in 1998, washes clothes to make

>money, at 150 Kenya shillings ($2,25) a day, and tries to help feed

>her three surviving children who have no jobs.

>

> " But when my body is not good I just have to stay at home. "

>

>Another grandmother, Antonina Mujenge, also HIV positive, cares for

>five of her own children and four grandchildren. She also sells

>charcoal.

>

> " I try to look after them like other children but it is very

>difficult because of my low income. Sometimes there is not enough for

>all of them, " she said.

>

> " My main aim is to stay around long enough to make sure the kids can

>get an education and find jobs, " said Mujenge, who has lived in

>Kibera for 20 years.

>

>She would love to return to her village in western Kenya. " But I am

>an outcast at home. They say I can infect others. I cannot go back. "

>

>Grace Atema (65) looks after three grandchildren and her daughter,

>mother of two of them. She washes clothes twice a week to raise money.

>

> " I put everything I get towards the children. But I worry what would

>happen if I died. How would they survive? " she asked. -- Reuters

>

>http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?

>area=/insight/insight__africa & articleid=326495

>

>--- End forwarded message ---

>

>

>

>

>Aids-Africa is a forum for communication and information on AIDS related issues

in Africa and all are welcome to join us at

http://www./group/aids-africa

>Join us on hiv/aids forum on Kenya at

http://www./group/

>Join us at a Kenyan networking forum and NGOS at

http://www./group/kenyainternational

>Join the Kenyan forum Wananchi at http://www./group/wananchi

>Join the Swahili forum http://www./group/kiswahili

>Join the IT forum http://www./group/digafrica

>

>If you need to be added directly to any forum contact Chifu at

chifu2222@... and please specify which forum you would like to be

subscribed to.

>

>Chifu

>

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

This is such a poignant article, and the subject such a huge challenge! It's

great to read about some of the efforts to be of help, and let me also add

another: a film project called " A Grandmother's Tribe " , which features Kenyan

grandmothers.

The Kenyan debut of the film will be in February 2008. Premieres have taken

place in New Zealand (home of the director, Qiujing Wong, of Borderless

Productions) and Vancouver, Canada (where Qiujing used to live, and where there

has been much support for the film). For more news and info:

http://www.agrandmotherstribe.com

The film has already raised $50,000 for Kenyan grandmothers, and is in the

process of making a world tour. If anyone is interested in helping with this

venture--booking a showing, becoming a supporter, donating, telling

others--please contact Qiujing Wong (qiujing@...). See

also

http://www.borderlessproductions.com

Felix Masi in Kenya (http://www.voicelesschildren.org) can also be contacted

(felixmasius@...), and I too can put you in touch with the

producers/director (kaippg@...), so feel free to be in touch.

" A Grandmother's Tribe " is linking up with the Foundation, which

is working on a project related to grandmothers. For more on this see their url:

http://www.stephenlewisfoundation.org/grandmothers.htm

Here's to becoming one tribe in support of its own, and bravo to all of the

courageous and caring grandmothers (grandfathers too!) of the world! Janet

Aids-Africa Kenya: Aids leaves Africa's grannies to raise children

>

>

>Aids leaves Africa's grannies to raise children

>Barry Moody | Nairobi, Kenya

>30 November 2007 11:59

>

>Skinny and gap-toothed, her nose smudged with black dust, grandmother

>Kanotu Mumo sorts charcoal into small pots for sale on the stoop of

>her slum hut.

>

>Mumo is an " Aids granny " in Kibera, Nairobi, one of Africa's biggest

>slums. Like grandmothers all over Africa, they have been left to fend

>for orphans after their own children and husbands died.

>

>Her hut, stacked with sacks of charcoal, measures 3m by 2,5m and it

>is too dark inside to see more than a few centimetres, even in the

>middle of the day.

>

>Somehow she shelters four grandchildren, two great grandchildren and

>the child of a dead relative, who sleep on mattresses and two beds.

>There is no toilet or running water.

>

>According to United Nations figures, at least 12-million children in

>Africa have lost one or both parents because of Aids. This accounts

>for 80% of all Aids orphans in the developing world.

>

>The number of orphans in Africa has increased by 50% since 1990 while

>falling in other regions. The UN says there will be 53-million by

>2010, about 30% of them bereaved by Aids.

>

>The burden of this disaster is borne by extended families, most often

>grandmothers, who might have otherwise dreamed of returning to their

>home villages for retirement at the end of a tough life.

>

>Kanotu Mumo moved to Kibera, home to 800 000 people, when her husband

>died about 25 years ago in eastern Kenya. " I can't remember. It has

>been so long. When my husband died the relatives threw me out and

>sold the land. "

>

>Unlike many of the grandmothers, doleful and worn down by their fate,

>Mumo smiles and jokes. She says she cannot remember her age. As she

>talks, two teenage granddaughters come and go.

>

>Her story is typical of the everyday tragedies of Kibera. Two

>daughters and a son died of Aids. Another son was stoned to death by

>a mob after he was caught stealing. " I am embarrassed to talk about

>it but it was due to the unemployment. "

>

>She lives close to the railway line that runs through the sprawling

>slum, acting both as a pedestrian thoroughfare and place for traders

>to lay out shoes and clothes.

>

>She sells her charcoal -- the slum's primary fuel -- for a few

>shillings profit, after buying from a nearby wholesaler who carries

>it to her hut.

>

>School

>Like other grandmothers interviewed by Reuters, Kanotu Mumo comes to

>the Stara school in Kibera to clean twice a week. Their grandchildren

>attend the school and are fed from huge vats of steaming maize

>porridge and beans.

>

>The project, supplied and funded by Dutch charity ChildsLife

>International, the UN World Food Programme and Kenyan aid agency Feed

>the Children, was started seven years ago by a group of Kibera

>mothers, after friends died and left them to look after their

>children.

>

>The school on the edge of Kibera houses more than 500 lively

>children, 70% of them orphans, dressed in green uniforms.

>

>More than 30 of the children are HIV positive and receive

>antiretrovirals from a nearby clinic in the slum, supplied against

>vouchers from the school.

>

>The small size of the premises means classes are noisy and

>overcrowded, with up to 80 children of mixed ages. The school, headed

>by dynamic Kibera resident phine Mumo, has proven skilful in

>raising support.

>

>Singer Harry Belafonte, Barbara Bush, mother of United States

>President Bush and actress Drew Barrymore have been backers.

>

>Without their grandmothers and projects such as Stara, many more

>orphans in Kibera and elsewhere would end up as glue-sniffing street

>children or child prostitutes.

>

>phine Mumo says that when the mothers started the school, they

>brought in children who had been raped as they went door-to-door

>begging for food.

>

>Survive for the children

>Many of the grandmothers are themselves weakened by HIV as well as

>old age, making it even harder for them to feed their charges.

>

>Peris Owuor (50) is a Kibera grandmother looking after seven

>grandchildren. " Sometimes my body does not feel good and I cannot go

>to look for food, " she said.

>

>Owuor, whose husband died of Aids in 1998, washes clothes to make

>money, at 150 Kenya shillings ($2,25) a day, and tries to help feed

>her three surviving children who have no jobs.

>

> " But when my body is not good I just have to stay at home. "

>

>Another grandmother, Antonina Mujenge, also HIV positive, cares for

>five of her own children and four grandchildren. She also sells

>charcoal.

>

> " I try to look after them like other children but it is very

>difficult because of my low income. Sometimes there is not enough for

>all of them, " she said.

>

> " My main aim is to stay around long enough to make sure the kids can

>get an education and find jobs, " said Mujenge, who has lived in

>Kibera for 20 years.

>

>She would love to return to her village in western Kenya. " But I am

>an outcast at home. They say I can infect others. I cannot go back. "

>

>Grace Atema (65) looks after three grandchildren and her daughter,

>mother of two of them. She washes clothes twice a week to raise money.

>

> " I put everything I get towards the children. But I worry what would

>happen if I died. How would they survive? " she asked. -- Reuters

>

>http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?

>area=/insight/insight__africa & articleid=326495

>

>--- End forwarded message ---

>

>

>

>

>Aids-Africa is a forum for communication and information on AIDS related issues

in Africa and all are welcome to join us at

http://www./group/aids-africa

>Join us on hiv/aids forum on Kenya at

http://www./group/

>Join us at a Kenyan networking forum and NGOS at

http://www./group/kenyainternational

>Join the Kenyan forum Wananchi at http://www./group/wananchi

>Join the Swahili forum http://www./group/kiswahili

>Join the IT forum http://www./group/digafrica

>

>If you need to be added directly to any forum contact Chifu at

chifu2222@... and please specify which forum you would like to be

subscribed to.

>

>Chifu

>