The Grandmothers Against Poverty and Aids (GAPA) group from Khayelitsha is made up of dynamic ‘gogos’ who face everyday life difficulties together, including taking care of their HIV-positive relatives, dealing with poverty and bettering their lives. GAPA was started in October 2001 as a self help project in Khayelitsha. GAPA’s intervention is made up of two spheres - education and psychosocial support. In 2009, the grannies performed a dance to raise awareness of a grandmother’s role in society, specifically South Africa. Today, they are a vibrant group of grannies that work together to uplift themselves and their community.
Dance of Solidarity
In 2009, a few grandmothers had a celebration: the walls and furniture shook; whistles and ululations shattered the silence. The 60-odd grandmothers in bright traditional headgear and beads were dancing, shaking their sticks and shouting out with the vigour of young men.
They were at the Khayelitsha headquarters of non-government organisation Grandmothers Against Poverty and Aids (GAPA) as part an international grandmothers' event to celebrate the ‘support, counselling and comfort’ they give one another every day at GAPA.
The Khayelitsha grandmothers were a group in a network of over 20, in Canada and Africa performing a ‘dance of solidarity’ to highlight the role of African grandmothers in raising many of the continent's 11.6 million children estimated to have lost one or both parents to Aids. Nothemba Mdaka, 68 - who had recently had a stroke — took centre stage as the GAPA praise singer, roaring like a lion and shaking her sticks. She said: “We are the heroes who take on the burden of the children.
It is us who give them the love their mothers should give them, but can't. It is us who give them a future. Praise to GAPA!” In Canada, the grandmothers performed the dance of solidarity with their friends, families and grandchildren in Ottawa, Vancouver, Toronto, Whitehorse, Hamilton, Orillia, Alliston and Halifax. In Africa, they danced in Botswana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Swaziland, as well as South Africa.
GAPA Today
Today, GAPA is made up of vibrant grannies who support each other and uplift their families by knitting together, sharing stories and experiences and performing dances as mentioned back in 2009. GAPA holds workshops each month for grandmothers, where they learn about HIV infection and AIDS.
They are also equipped with practical skills to overcome such as HIV/AIDS and cancer awareness, vegetable gardening, human rights, elder abuse, death and business skills. Grannies are also invited to attend support groups held in each other’s homes once a week, where they pray together and share their stories.
By Jo-Anne Smetherham