Claire Painchaud remembers a morning earlier this year when she was sitting in her Winnipeg kitchen and reading the newspaper over a cup of coffee. The television was on and the voice of an African woman made her look up.
“She was saying that at her age, she should be at home drinking a cup of tea, not doing this.”
“Doing this” was taking in and raising her grandchildren as her own after burying her own children who died of HIV/AIDS.
Rose's story is unfortunately all too common in sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 13 million children have been orphaned by the disease. Ms. Painchaud, herself a grandmother of 10, felt compelled to help to help these women in any way she could.
Working with the Stephen Lewis Foundation has brought her to Toronto's International AIDS Conference to meet with other grandmothers — 200 from Canada and about 100 from sub-Saharan Africa — where they will share their stories about the pandemic that is affecting their lives so profoundly.
It's estimated 50 per cent of orphaned children live in grandparent-headed households in Botswana and Malawi, and more than 60 per cent in Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
“We're going to take back their stories, we're going to take back photos, and get them the help they need,” Ms. Painchaud, 51, said at George Brown College Saturday. “When I see these women's faces, and the struggles that they've gone through, I find it very difficult, very difficult.”
One of those faces is that of Zodwa Hilda Ndlovu.
The retired nurse from Durban, South Africa, lost both her children to AIDS, and was left to raise her daughter's daughter with her husband. Now she has lost even her, after the 14-year-old went to live with her other grandmother who lost all her family to AIDS.
“I've lost everything. My children are dead, my granddaughter is gone, I'm all alone,” the 55-year-old said.
But the one thing that she says has kept her strong is the support she gets from sharing her story with others.
“I always say that those who are negative, they must stay negative. And all those who are positive, must live life in a positive way. That's what I am trying to do.”
Mama Zodwa, as all children call her, has become a staple in her village. She helps raise the dozens of orphans that live in her quarter and they line up every morning for some soup before they go to school.
“I don't know how I support them, but somehow God provides,” she said. “I will also die one day — maybe next year my CD4 counts will go down. But I know what I will have died of, and I know that I am using my time right now to do what I can.”
