ugandan grandmothers

Nearly two-thirds of orphans in southern and eastern Africa are in the care of the “grannies.” These women were, for the most part, long past the days of sexual activity when HIV took hold, so most have escaped it. They remain healthy as their own children waste away and die, often by the age of thirty. These women end up taking in not only the grandchildren, but also neighbor kids who have lost their parents and who have nowhere else to go.

Here are a few of the heroic grandmothers I met during my travels in Uganda. The women pictured here range in age from 40's to 80's. Not one of them thinks she is doing anything extraordinary, even though her life would be considered difficult for someone half her age. Each one definitely worries, however, about what will happen to these children when they, the grannies, die.