Return to Hillcrest: gogos

Francisca Mbele is a 73 year old granny who makes Little Traveller dolls. Of ten children she raised to adulthood, all but one have passed away, and she now cares for her five grandchildren, ranging from 6 to 20 yrs in age.

Francisca (who is affectionately known as “Gogo”, a Zulu word for “Granny”) has been beading for six years, having learned at the Hillcrest Aids Centre. She initially came to the centre when one of her granddaughters fell very ill. She explains, “Paula [the director of Woza Moya income-generation project] taught me how to bead. So I’m happy. I didn’t do beading before, but now I’m clever. [Jill of Woza Moya) gave me glasses and now I can do it fast.” In fact, Gogo says that if someone brings her tea to her, she can make up to 20 Little Travellers in one day.

Gogo is very happy to be part of the beading project at the Hillcrest Aids Centre. She describes her poverty before she started beading: “Before, I hadn’t got even shoes. Nothing before. I was too frightened to go outside. I was afraid people were going to laugh. I had nothing. Nothing to eat, no clothes.” By making Little Travellers, Gogo now earns approximately R300-400 (~$60 Cdn) per week, and she uses it to buy food and blankets. When asked what the Little Travellers mean to her, Gogo responds, “They mean that God helps me. God helps me to do these dollies. He looks after me.”

In addition to participating in the income-generation projects, Gogo receives a weekly food parcel from the AIDS Centre. Her gratitude in spite of all her hardships is inspiring. “I’m happy! I’m too happy!” she exclaims joyfully.

By purchasing Little Travellers, you are supporting people like Francisca and her family. In addition, all further proceeds help the Hillcrest Aids Centre to provide “unconditional love to all those affected by HIV/AIDS in a practical way”.

Yesterday, Cwengi, one of the loving nurses of the Hillcrest AIDS Centre, asked Kristine and I to join her on visits to the homes of several gogos (Zulu: grannies) in the community. The reason for the visits was to complete a questionnaire regarding the living situations of those caring for children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, as part of the work of a researcher from Canada. Two years ago when I was here, I would often go out on home visits with the nurses, though usually it was to check in on patients or to provide support for the home-based carers.

We visited four gogos in the community of Molweni in the Valley of a Thousand Hills, and we felt so privileged to be guests in their homes and to be granted such an intimate view into the lives of these courageous women. All of the grannies were caring for grandchildren who had been orphaned by the pandemic, foregoing the relaxation that was meant to accompany their "golden years".

As I entered the home of the first gogo and took in the familiar smells and images, it was as if I was transported back two years ago. I could suddenly vividly recall the feelings of admiration, humility, and impotence of the home-visits on which I accompanied the nurses at that time. On the wall was a large framed photograph of her adult daughter, visibly within the terrible clutches of AIDS. Gogo had cared for her dying daughter and then her son, the latter passing on just 3 weeks ago. Now, looking after her granddaughter presented a new set of challenges. For example, she wasn't sure how to deal with some of the questions that she was being asked, such as "Why did mom die? Am I going to die too?", and "why don't the other children need to take medicine? Why am I different?". While she said that she was receiving advice on dealing with these questions from a counselor at her church, she still found it very difficult to handle these issues. Her granddaughter was currently being cared for at the Hillcrest AIDS Centre's respite unit, where she was recovering from a bout with illness and awaiting some tests from the hospital before starting anti-retrovirals. Gogo was too poor to be able to visit the child daily - she could not afford the R5 (~$0.70 CAD) for the taxi ride to Hillcrest. She was looking forward to her child coming home soon. After completing the questionnaire, we thanked her, and left her with several blankets for the winter.

The next two gogos that we visited presented stories equally as heartwrenching. For the sake of brevity, I will only recount the story of the final gogo that we visited. This granny was caring for several grandchildren. She was very poor. One salient storyline in her situation was that the mothers of her sons' children had abandoned the children to her care. To make matters worse, these women would continue to collect child-care grants for the children, so that Gogo couldn't collect the grant herself! This has happened not once, but three times! She was an incredible sweet woman, and embodied so many of the features of the strong, resilient grandmothers who former UN Special Envoy to HIV/AIDS in Africa, Stephen Lewis, rightfully acknowledges as "the true heroes of the continent of Africa". Learning their stories and being allowed such an intimate peak into their lives was an immense privilege that neither Kristine nor I will soon forget.

Kristine joins Sister Cwengi and Besda, a home-based carer, on a visit to the home of a granny.