KERUDO
Kenya Evangelical Rural and Urban Development Outreach
KERUDO ANNUAL REPORT 2010
THE ROLE OF GRANDMOTHERS IN THE PRESENT KENYAN SOCIETY
In Kenya 40 – 60 percent of orphans live in grandmother’s headed households. These courageous and resilient women have no time to grieve. Their priority is the next generation: the infants, toddlers, and teenagers who are left behind. While there is never enough for their burgeoning households, somehow these grandmothers manage to feed, clothe and comfort their grandchildren. They become parents for the second time. Playing the role of a grandmother and a mother simultaneously is not an easy affair.
As you would imagine, there are challenges that come with this new job description. The generation gap is just but one of them. Every time these grandmothers have to learn to make every effort to keep abreast with what is current so that they do not enforce some old ideals to them. Some of these grandmothers who were very strict with discipline on their own children but now have since seen the need to relax.
With an estimated over 11.6 million orphaned children in the sub-Saharan Africa, there are millions of grandmothers who struggle everyday to make sure that these children get parental care and protection.
Given the scale of the problem, support for the care-givers, who are in this case the grandmothers, can be healthier and more sustaining as opposed to institutionalizing the children in orphanages and children’s homes.
Studies in sub-Saharan Africa have repeatedly demonstrated that growing in a family environment is more beneficial to a child than in institutional care, which should be considered a temporary option or a last resort. Ultimately, though, the extended family can only serve as part of the solution to mass orphan-hood if adequately supported by the state and the community, as well as other sectors of society.
In a 2007 study carried out in African countries by AVERT an international AIDS charity, it emerged that communities need to be supportive of orphans, making sure that they are accepted and have access to essential services such as healthcare, shelter and education.
This means improving existing services and reducing the stigma surrounding orphaned children so that they do not face discrimination when trying to access these services. The study notes that schools play a crucial role in improving the prospects of orphans and securing their future. A good school education can give children higher self-esteem, better job prospects and economic independence hence lifting the children out of poverty.
Children who head families are also a vital part of the solution and should be supported in efforts to lessen the impact of AIDS.
These Kenyan grandmothers are some of the women who have emerged as the unsung heroes of the Africa’s children. They bury their own children and while in their 50s, 60s and 70s begin to parent again, raising their grandchildren with little or no support.