Grandmothers’ plight tackled as vital issue
WHEN did you last visit your grandma? Well over 200 of them are currently gathering in Arusha where Tanzania joins Uganda in becoming the first East African Countries to pay attention to predicaments faced by ageing women.
And as HIV/Aids and other infectious diseases claim millions of lives in East and Central African region, children who have been losing both parents due to such maladies are now becoming the burden on the weak shoulders of their aging grandmothers.
That was among the concerns raised during the first grandmothers’ Gathering in Tanzania. It is the second in East Africa as Uganda held the first one, where participants from various countries met to address dilemmas facing grandmothers in Tanzania, East Africa and Sub- Saharan region.
One of the event coordinators, Mama Pfiriaeli Kiwia said there are more than 17 million children around the world who became orphans due to the HIV/ Aids pandemic and explained that up to 60 per cent of such orphans in Sub-Saharan region were left under the care of their grandmothers.
Most notable during the three-day meeting organised by the Stephen Lewis Foundation of Canada, was the issue of orphans left helplessly behind due to premature deaths of their parents. Plus, how a single and usually widowed grandmother is compelled to take care of up to ten children on almost zero source of income in addition to failing health. But sometimes even when HIV/Aids victims are still alive in towns, they tend to send their children to grandparents in rural villages to be fended for.
In other cases, both the ailing parents and their children become a burden to the grandmothers. The Arusha Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Mrisho Gambo opened the maiden grandmothers gathering at the Mount Meru Hotel on behalf of the Vice-President, Mama Samia Suluhu, and used the occasion to give a reminder that a verification exercise was
underway to identify and register all old persons in the country who would subsequently be given health insurance cards, to assure them of free and proper medical care. “Already the government has taken care of the education budget through rolling out free education to all children from primary to secondary level, something which will offset the costs of school fees that would have otherwise been paid by grandmothers,” Mr Gambo explained.
He cited the case of Arusha where over 1.8 billion/- was disbursed into the region annually to cover the free education initiative. The maiden grandmothers’ gathering in Tanzania is being attended by participants from the host country, Uganda, South-Africa, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and United States
And as HIV/Aids and other infectious diseases claim millions of lives in East and Central African region, children who have been losing both parents due to such maladies are now becoming the burden on the weak shoulders of their aging grandmothers.
That was among the concerns raised during the first grandmothers’ Gathering in Tanzania. It is the second in East Africa as Uganda held the first one, where participants from various countries met to address dilemmas facing grandmothers in Tanzania, East Africa and Sub- Saharan region.
One of the event coordinators, Mama Pfiriaeli Kiwia said there are more than 17 million children around the world who became orphans due to the HIV/ Aids pandemic and explained that up to 60 per cent of such orphans in Sub-Saharan region were left under the care of their grandmothers.
Most notable during the three-day meeting organised by the Stephen Lewis Foundation of Canada, was the issue of orphans left helplessly behind due to premature deaths of their parents. Plus, how a single and usually widowed grandmother is compelled to take care of up to ten children on almost zero source of income in addition to failing health. But sometimes even when HIV/Aids victims are still alive in towns, they tend to send their children to grandparents in rural villages to be fended for.
In other cases, both the ailing parents and their children become a burden to the grandmothers. The Arusha Regional Commissioner (RC), Mr Mrisho Gambo opened the maiden grandmothers gathering at the Mount Meru Hotel on behalf of the Vice-President, Mama Samia Suluhu, and used the occasion to give a reminder that a verification exercise was
underway to identify and register all old persons in the country who would subsequently be given health insurance cards, to assure them of free and proper medical care. “Already the government has taken care of the education budget through rolling out free education to all children from primary to secondary level, something which will offset the costs of school fees that would have otherwise been paid by grandmothers,” Mr Gambo explained.
He cited the case of Arusha where over 1.8 billion/- was disbursed into the region annually to cover the free education initiative. The maiden grandmothers’ gathering in Tanzania is being attended by participants from the host country, Uganda, South-Africa, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and United States
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