Grim statistics do not often describe the tragedy of the elderly who are affected by HIV/AIDS.  Apart from grieving for their dead and productive children, their grandchildren are also isolated by the society though stigma associated with HIV/AIDS. They are plunged into socio-economic crisis and insecurity caused by the death of breadwinners.  These old people struggle to provide for themselves as well as grandchildren left behind by the dead parents without basic services or support systems in their impoverished communities.

The plight of these elderly (mainly grandmothers) affected by HIV/AIDS show that they are more likely than not to suffer from psychological trauma.  The testimony to the socio-economic impact of this pandemic details how HIV/AIDS has pushed these people to conditions of utter destitution.  Many of these grandmothers are faced with hunger, disease high levels of poverty.   They result exploitative labour, sale of assets left behind by their children and even sale of ancestral land – the only inheritance for their grandchildren.  Their grandchildren are socially excluded, lack basic needs like clothing and shelter and mostly are unable to attend school.  They revert to child labour, sex-trade or even crime for survival.

These grandmothers suffer silently as they have no medium channel of getting their voices heard.  It is in the realization of the critical role played by the elderly in communities devastated by HIV/AIDS that TAPWAK in partnership with the Steven-Lewis Foundation has embarked on a programme focussing on alleviating some of the problems faced by these grandmothers.