GRANDMOTHERS AGAINST POVERTY AND AIDS (GAPA)

Cape Town, South Africa 

Introduction

The Stephen Lewis Foundation works with community-based organizations, run by and for grandmothers, working to turn the tide of HIV & AIDS in Africa. Since 2003, the Foundation has funded more than 1700 initiatives, partnering with over 325 community-based organizations in the 15 African countries hardest hit by the pandemic - Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

These grassroots groups are the lifeline for their communities: they provide counselling and education about HIV prevention, care and treatment; business skills training; distribute food, medication and other necessities; reach the sick and vulnerable through home-based health care; help orphans and vulnerable children access education and work through their grief, support grandmothers caring for their orphaned grandchildren.

Today all over South Africa there are grandmothers holding families together affected by HIV/AIDS and poverty. Often these women are the sole bread winners in a household. They may also be nursing the dying and bringing up orphaned grandchildren on their own. Research shows that these grandmothers suffer from a lack of information, stigmatization and overriding poverty.

GAPA was started as a direct result of the implementation phase of a research project undertaken by the Albertina and Walter Sisulu Institute of Ageing in Africa at the University of Cape Town into the plight of grandmothers living on the Cape Flats. The intervention program was designed to meet the needs articulated by grandmothers who were part of the study and were affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Grandmothers who participated in the pilot project felt that the information and support that they had received was too valuable to end with the completion of the pilot program.

As a result, in October 2001 a group of grandmothers from Khayelitsha, 20 km outside Cape Town South Africa formed a non-profit organisation called Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS (GAPA) to help grandmothers, whose families were affected by HIV/AIDS, to better cope with their daily lives. It is run by grandmothers and supplemented with a small staff complement. Initially grandmothers from Khayelitsha made up the majority of the members. There are now members as far afield as Tsolo and Umtata in the Eastern Cape, while new members have joined from Gugulethu and Langa. GAPA’s motto is ‘together we are stronger’ and the aim is to draw on the inherent strength of the grandmothers in the community to bring lasting change and hope.

GAPA is managed by a group of staff members, a committee made up of grandmothers and a board. Committee members are elected annually. It receives funds from the South African government and donations come from organisations, including the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

Since its inception (GAPA) has established numerous formal grandmother Support Groups and has hosted training workshops for over 900 grandmothers, offering them the opportunity to draw strength and solace from each other and address poverty and HIV/AIDS in their community. Today GAPA is one of the largest organized groups of grandmothers on the continent.

Grandmothers are actively recruited by GAPA members and invited to attend monthly four day workshops. They are then invited to join a support group. Membership is voluntary with the only requirement being active participation.

Programmes

GAPA’s mission is to implement self-help, education and support programmes for and by grandmothers affected by HIV/AIDS and poverty. These programmes aim to improve the grandmothers’ quality of life within their families and communities and include:

Workshops and training for grandmothers

Each month GAPA runs an Indaba, where newcomers learn about the operation of GAPA and members have a platform to speak about current affairs that are affecting their communities. These workshops are facilitated by trained grandmothers who have been through the workshops on previous occasions or by relevant guests. The workshops cover various topics including practical skills to overcome effects of the pandemic on households. Topics include: HIV/AIDS education, cancer awareness, nutrition, human rights & elder abuse, accessing government grants, business skills, vegetable gardening, bereavement, parenting skills, child care and the drawing up of a will.

In these workshops GAPA aims to empower grandmothers to take charge of their lives and circumstances by means of education and raising relevant issues.

Income generation activities (vegetable gardening and making of crafts)

GAPA supports the formation of business co-operatives based in peoples' homes throughout Khayelitsha. The SLF partners have integrated income generation into their programming strategies. As Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS (GAPA), South Africa, explains: Our approach to emotional and psychological support is activity-based. With the grandmothers we use activities as a means of processing emotions as well as a means to achieving an end product when the day is done. This is what happens with income-generating projects in which grandmothers are taught to make arts and crafts with beads. As our motto “together we are stronger” suggests, we believe in collective effort, hence our emotional and psychological support is based on collective activity, which facilitates sharing and processing emotions, and healing well together.

Peer Support groups

The grandmothers’ support groups promoted by GAPA help grandmothers work through their grief. Emotionally vulnerable grandmothers are recruited by grandmothers who are known as area representatives to join the support groups that they run in their homes once a week. In these groups the grandmothers meet others who have family members who are infected with HIV or who have died from AIDS complications. Through the medium of a handwork activity such as patchwork, grandmothers are made to feel comfortable and supported.

The group leader counsels them and teaches them about HIV/AIDS. Through the peer support grandmothers gradually come to terms with their losses and start to take charge of their lives. Once grandmothers are emotionally stable they are invited to form cooperative groups more focused on income generation.

Psychological Support Groups

GAPA supports the formation of psychological support groups under the leadership of an area representative.

Advocacy and community involvement

GAPA aims to empower grandmothers to take charge of their lives and circumstances by means of education and raising relevant issues in workshops. Some are now recognized as community experts and agents of change.They have become activists and advocates

Pre-School Bursary Programme

SLF provides funding for GAPA’s pre-school bursary programme where orphans and vulnerable children gain their first exposure to the classroom, while their grandmothers participate in GAPA support groups. Bursaries are awarded based on need and availability of funds. Area representatives are responsible for checking that the child is attending preschool.

After School Care

GAPA has also established an after-school service, run by grandmothers, for vulnerable children who went home after school to empty homes. Each afternoon, a team of grandmothers provide meals and help children with homework. They also raise awareness of HIV/Aids and facilitate other activities like teaching the children how to tend the vegetable garden and teach skills such as knitting and beadwork. The grandmothers teach English literacy, tell traditional stories and teach traditional songs. The children are kept in a safe, loving environment where they are free to play and learn at will.

A Success Story - Ma Thandi

Ma Thandi became involved with Grandmother Against Poverty and Aids (GAPA) in South Africa more than 10 years ago. She is now a finalist for the “Brave Women in South Africa award” in recognition of her leadership and contributions to her community. Her story and the work of GAPA were featured recently in a local television programme.

To hear her story click on the link below.

Ma Thandi Through her Eyes

Conclusion

Innovation: traditionally in Africa the grandmothers care for their grandchildren, while the children's parents are working. However, very little attention has been focused on building the capacity of grandmothers to become effective sole caretakers of families when their children and relatives die prematurely from AIDS. Through close links with communities, GAPA organizes feeding schemes, pre-school bursary schemes, and specialised workshops to meet the needs of the grandparents. They also fill all staffing needs of the project.

Effectiveness: Since its inception there are now 19 home groups (190 grandmothers) operating in Cape Town and three co-operatives in the Eastern Cape. Workshop attendees and the number of grandmothers who receive preschool bursaries have risen substantially. The activities rendered, complement work done by other organisations in the area.

Poverty Impact: GAPA programmes empower grandmothers; they learn acceptance, "that is to be able to help the person with HIV and to teach others how to accept them"; they learn that they can "nurse the HIV positive person without becoming sick"; they no longer sit at home "unhappy and alone"; they have a measure of financial security through their income generating activities and are able to meet the needs of their grandchildren.

Sustainability: Funding is secured through government and private donors. The SLF is committed to the project which will continue to grow as more grandmothers are affected by HIV/AIDS.

Replication: The GAPA model is replicable and interest has been shown in the Sedibeng District and the Free State about starting up GAPA-type organisations. Meetings have been held with GAPA staff and interested parties from these areas.

GAPA has also been replicated and started up in other countries such as Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Kenya.