Holding families together all over South Africa

Grandmothers in historically disadvantaged South Africa have always played a big role in the upbringing of their grandchildren. This tradition is not a cultural one, but one fashioned by the demands of apartheid.

Black people were not allowed to be in ‘white’ areas unless they had a work permit to be there. They were certainly not allowed to bring their families with them. Husbands and wives worked far apart from each other and from their rural homes where they were forced to leave their children in the care of a grandmother or auntie.

The trend continues because the majority of black mothers simply don’t earn enough to bring their families with them to the towns and the cities where the jobs are. Besides, the places which they can afford as accommodation are often unsafe or simply don’t have enough space to accommodate a family – like the ‘maid’s rooms’ in previously white backyards everywhere in our country.

So, the children are still left with gogo.

There is another reason, nowadays, why millions of grandmothers are bringing up their grandchildren: they are either nursing their own children who are dying of AIDS or they have buried them.

All over South Africa, these grandmothers are holding families together despite their grief – often taking care of as many as ten children on a meagre state pension and, if she’s lucky, some piece jobs. At a time when she really should be able to rest, her life is filled with toil and suffering … and desperate poverty that she knows will have dire consequences for her grandchildren.

Here’s what YOU can do to make a difference

Stop justifying paying the minimum wage to the women who clean your house and support your life. They are someone’s mother, auntie or grandmother … and the quality of their lives is at your mercy.

Start a support group at your church, school or community centre for the women who take care of children in their communities. Find out what they need and start helping them practically and materially.

Give them access to information:

• Make sure they know how to apply for available social grants
• How to protect themselves from getting HIV infected when caring for an AIDS patient.
• How to grow vegetables to feed their family.
• How to draw up a will to make sure that their grandchildren will inherit what is rightfully theirs
• How to protect their human rights and what to do if they are being abused
• How to cope with the changing needs of their growing grandchildren – including the need for sex education
• How to cope with pain and loss
• And any other subjects they want to know about.

Image credit: Tshikululu Social Investments | www.tshikululu.org.za