Tuesday 26 August 2008

Tough women

Photo from Flickr/khym54. Creative Commons licence.

Like tens of thousands of other grandmothers in Malawi, this "Go Go" is taking care of her grandchildren because their parents have died of AIDS.

Photo from Flickr/khym54. Creative Commons licence.

This is Harriet -- one of millions of Go Go's in Sub-Saharan Africa. Harriet is a grandmother in her early 70s. She is taking care of 16 children who have no parents. Only one of Harriet's own children is still alive. The rest have died.

14% of the population in Malawi has HIV/Aids. There are 84,000 more orphans every year. Very often these children, roughly half of them, are taken in by grandmothers, sometimes leaving these older women with several children from different families to support.

Like Harriet above, most are of an age when they might be enjoying a more peaceful and restful life. Instead they are struggling first with the grief of having lost their sons or daughters, then to raise young grandchildren, often HIV positive, on a meagre income and with little or no support. They are unsung heroes.

Look again at those women above. How many of us could raise, or have raised, our own children in those circumstances? And yet these women are taking on their HIV positive grandchildren and at times other children as well.

There are so many courageous and tough women in the world, often struggling quietly in difficult circumstances. Not all of them perform spectacular feats which catch the eye or the attention of the press, but they are every bit as deserving of our recognition and, more to the point, our help.

18 comments:

  1. This is a wonderful post. Sometimes we just live so selfishly without noticing the very difficult struggles of others. Indeed tough women

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you WeblogLearner. I can see you understand what I'm trying to say.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thank you so much for helping to raise the profile of these women. I fail to understand how middle class first world can sit back and do nothing to support third world countries and women and children at risk.
    A wonderful post.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you Megan, very much indeed. One of the problems is of course to know how to help for the best. But first it has to start with understanding that the situation exists.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's a shame some of the current generation, many suffering pitifully from a case of entitlement, won't be reading this poignant post. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What would we do without the Go Gos? All over the world, but especially in Africa, I think. So much has been placed on their shoulders. NIce post.

    ReplyDelete
  7. WT4W, probably true, and even if they did read it, would they take anything away? Nevertheless, people of all sorts need reminders sometimes.

    Max, yes, without a shadow of doubt, grandmothers all over the world shoulder many burdens. These ones though, in sub-Saharan Africa, have seen a whole generation virtually wiped out, their own children, leaving them to do far more than they could ever have expected. And let's not forget, few of them lead an easy life in the first place.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ... and it makes me so angry that the Roman Catholic Church still will not allow the use of condoms, which might at least slow down the spread of HIV/AIDS.

    Great post.

    ReplyDelete
  9. It is so sad. The Go Gos probably feel hopelessness. I don't think they can get any help from their Government.

    We're blessed.

    ReplyDelete
  10. There are problems all around the world right now and I hope that the masses of people who are perfectly capable of doing something about it will rise up and play their roles to save them.

    By the way, I stumbled across your blog via Entrecard and thought that you have done a very excellent job with it. Like you, I also have a blog. Mine is for the purpose of using my novel to save people in Uganda, Africa. Anyways, I was wondering if you would like to do a link or banner exchange with me. My blog is http://fateiscallingyou.blogspot.com and I am very interested in hearing from you. If you would like to exchange, please contact me and tell me the exact URL you would like for me to link to. Thank you. ---Felix.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Yes, God bless these wonderful women. They are guardian angels to these little tykes. Thanks for the ennobling post. God bless.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Anyone raising 16 children in her 70's is heroic. It is a tragic situation.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Poor Poor people!!!there are no words when we watch such pictures... When I think to our artificial occidental world when the South is in a such tragical situation.

    ReplyDelete
  14. This post highlights that what celebrities like Madonna are doing, are stealing children. Western people cannot seem to get the concept that poverty does not make you a bad parent, it makes you the victim of a bad economic system.

    ReplyDelete
  15. i've see in her eyes and i know she is a strong woman that will carrying child and protect them. salute for that woman and especially to you for give us this information

    ReplyDelete
  16. HELP FOR MALAWI
    A popular magazine,in support of Scottish International Aid, has been highlighting the enormous problems facing the people of Malawi.There is an appeal for funds to provide schools where meals are served ( it costs £5.30 to feed a child for a year - yes - a year ) School equipment is also needed and a schoolbag of pens ,pencils, writing paper etc could help childre receive an education to help provide an escape from such abject poverty
    Some quotes from the articles
    " I am a widow and as well as my own 6 children I take care of 3 grandchildren. We have a long distance to walk to school but I will come every day to help the other mothers cook the daily meal..... this project will be good for the community " Maria
    " We had to walk about 20 km to get to school each day which was particularly hard in the rainy season and there was never enough to eat. Now I see things are changing but there is still a long way to go -the feeding project will mean that children can concentrate on learning instead of worrying about food" Thomson Mwali-teacher
    "I wnnt to get an education so I can help people "-Teenage girl
    I decided to do what I could in response to this heart rending appeal.Every week I go to an OAP meeting and one week I took a schoolbag hoping it would be filled. The response was wonderful and we are now on our second bag.They are full of equipment -a few pencils here,a few notebooks there,in fact all manner of learning aids .One lady who is not very mobile has provided cash for postage as in the first instance the parcels go to Scotland. Good old Woolies were selling off summer clothing so we were able to get a few shorts and T shirt sets and some flip flops as requested.
    The appeal closes in December. Who knows what we will have by then ?
    More information on
    " My Weekly Malawi Appeal "

    ReplyDelete
  17. Oh my A. you have done such a good job with this heartrending story. I hope that people who have, will open their eyes and see the world as a whole and not just what is at the corner market.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Harriet, the grandmother in the second picture was my Malawian mother. She passed away two weeks ago.

    ReplyDelete

Forethoughts, afterthoughts, any thoughts. Tell me.

LinkWithin

Blog Widget by LinkWithin