41% of foster caregivers in South Africa are grannies, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. Statistics like these make Sithelwa Nkohle’s story sound ordinary – but the 68 year old is anything but.
41% of foster caregivers in South Africa are grannies, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund. Statistics like these make Sithelwa Nkohle’s story sound ordinary – but the 68 year old is anything but.
Nkohle had three daughteers. One left for Cape Town and never returned; a second is living with HIV/Aids and the third died from HIV/Aids two years ago. Nkohle looks after her three grandsons, aged 9, 11 and 15.
Nkohle’s position is not uncommon in a country where an increasing number of grandmothers are burying their loved ones.
Unemployed and surviving on government grants, many grandmothers hold families together that have been pulled apart by abandonment, poverty and HIV/Aids.
Despite their vital role in township society as caregivers for orphaned children, grandmothers are often overlooked or stigmatised.
Deadbeat dads
“It’s huge because of the epidemic,” says Goodwill Featherstone, manager of Jabez Aids Health Centre in Extension 9 *.
Nkohle says she gets R1 000 a month for her pension and R500 from two child support grants. She says two of the fathers are still alive but are not paying child support.
A social worker advised her to apply for a R710 foster child grant. She decided to apply for the more easily attainable R250 child care support grant because of the long process and documentation needed.
The two-bedroom house has electricity, but Nkohle says water is only available from 1am to 2am. She collects it in a big black bin next to the kitchen door.
Food for the family is basic, and Nkohle prepares isdovela (a mixture of rice and potatoes) for breakfast everyday.
Jabez Centre
Nkohle has never heard of Jabez Centre, where grandmothers make up almost all of the 200 foster parents that have been identified for assistance this year.
Featherstone says the number has quadrupled since last year because the Department of Social Development has increased the budget to R47 500, but it is still not enough.
Fostering grandmothers attend support groups once a month in Tantyi, Nyaluza, Hoogenoeg, Extension 7 and Extension 9, and receive a food parcel when they graduate.
The grandmothers initiate discussion topics which are addressed by a social worker at each
session. Issues include money management, accessing social grants and dealing with demanding grandchildren.
* The Jabez Aids Health Centre in Extension 9 has a programme for foster parents with family members affected by HIV/Aids.
