Grandmas in sub-Saharan Africa

"Life is very difficult because I have a pension of 500 rand per month. With that I have to support my two daughters Nomhlahla and Samkeliswe who are ill, my other two children who are unemployed and seven grandchildren who I take care of... At my age of 59 it is hard to be a mother once again to all these children, but I try to give them all the love that I have."

Throughout the 1990s it becomes apparent that one of the biggest tolls of the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa are the huge numbers of young children left vulnerable or orphaned by AIDS. As is tradition across the region - where institutional care is considered expensive and deprives children of a family unit - other relatives take children in. The burden almost always falls on grandmothers, who may already be caring for sick sons and daughters as well as other grandchildren.