Yesterday, the world celebrated International World AIDS Day, with the appropriate theme “Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS”. The vulnerability and risk of women and girls to infection, the horrifying statistics of the increasing orphan care issues; the daily cry of greater access to health care, treatment and nutrition for people living with HIV & AIDS are the main stories of the day.

What is rarely seen, said and adequately responded to are the needs and rights of the care givers. With what resources do these mostly elderly women and girls provide support and care to the infected and affected family members and friends? Where do they derive their daily strength to nurture, to love and to support our sick and dying? What nourishes their spirit as they wake up every day and respond to the call to serve humanity? Who actually cares for the care-givers?

In November, UNIFEM had the opportunity to meet and discuss with women in the poor rural community of Butula, Busia district, in a community dialogue organized by Hon Prof. Christine Mango, a Kenyan M.P. We also had an opportunity to visit a mother’s center in urban Mathare slums, organized by Esther Mwaura of Groots Kenya. We met with the women, the grandmothers, the girls, the orphans, the traders and the community elders. We spent a good time exchanging ideas and stories with the community care givers. Stories of caring amidst poverty and marginalisation were constant, whether in the poor urban slums or in the rural poor villages of Kenya. In the face of deepening poverty, women are finding themselves having to take up greater responsibilities for care. With little support these poor women take care of their fellow poor who cannot access health care services and other basic needs.

The women remain committed to provide their best for their loved ones. They feel their contribution is not valued. They are taken for granted, that they will always be there. One caregiver in Mathare gave an ironic laugh while discussing sanitation and hygiene. “I buy water from my place with my own money and carry it more than a kilometer to wash my patient because water is more expensive at her place” she quipped. “At times I bring some fruit and something to eat, but the patient is always asking for medicine and I cannot provide. When I have no money and cannot bring water or food, I actually avoid the visit,” she said, almost choking with emotion as she revealed the pain of care giving amidst poverty.

In Butula, Nekesa, a 60 year old grandmother talked of the many orphans she is having to take care of. Children have been chased away from their land and their homes by their uncles and aunties so that they can grab the property. “The poor orphans have nowhere to go… they look up to me to provide a roof over their heads as well as feeding them,” she lamented about the increasing number of young girls heading households, who look up to her for counseling and support.

The challenges of protecting young orphan girls who are often pulled out of school and made to work for the hosting family are great. One family felt that the orphaned girl who was raped by one of her guardians and infected with HIV/AIDS should be moved to another family as she was likely to cause the family to be stigmatized. Some of the women talked of the heavy burden of caring for their daughters when they are brought back ill from their marital homes and requested more food relief and farm implements to enable them to provide the necessary nutrition.

“How can I look after my daughter and her children when she was my sole provider before this illness incapacitated her? These funds we hear for the constituency on AIDS must prioritise elderly women like me who have little options,” grandmother Nekesa said as she advocated for targeted support. The Member of Parliament Hon. Prof. Mang’o appreciated the great work done by the community care givers and urged the government and community members to take responsibility in supporting those affected by HIV/AIDS.

As we celebrate World AIDS day, we must all remember to value and support the care-givers. They need a helping hand. They are an extension of the outreach of health and community services. Increased gender budgeting and resource allocation to HIV/AIDS in all sectoral programmes is one of the practical ways of mitigating the long-term impact of HIV/AIDS. It is a sure way of meeting the women caregivers half way. If the children are able to go to school, the health care services are accessible and affordable, and food security at household level is guaranteed, the care-givers will have a better day. If the legal system protects the deceased’s estates and property is not grabbed from the bereaved children and widows and widowers, and if the household capacity to generate income is facilitated, African women and girls will indeed continue with zeal to care and nurture.

Poverty in Africa will continue unless we address the gender dimensions of HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS is already reversing some of the gains made in education, in health, on women’s human rights, as the Beijing +10 review is telling us. It will be a hard struggle for the continent to reach the Millennium Development Goals unless substantive progress is made on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Improving the lives of women and men demands listening and taking action on the experiences such as shared with us in Butula and Mathare of Kenya.

* Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda is the Regional Programme Director for the United Nations Development Fund for Women in East and Horn of Africa. ([email protected])

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