Narrator:                             Usually a family has a mom and a dad and are the ones responsible for raising their children. But now in South Africa, families are taking a new shape, many are headed by grandmothers.

Theresa N.:                         [foreign language 00:00:16].

Narrator:                             This is because more and more young men and women are dying from AIDS. And often those who die are not only the parents of children but also the breadwinners of entire families.

Theresa N.:                         [foreign language 00:00:31].

Narrator:                             All the families we will show you tonight survive on a R650 old age pension.

Narrator:                             This is KwaZulu-Natal, home to many of South Africa's AIDS grannies. Not only are they faced with the responsibility of caring for their ill unemployed children, when those children die, they're also left to care for the little children they leave behind.

Maria Mzimela:                 [foreign language 00:01:11].

Narrator:                             The list goes on for Maria Mzimela. At 84, she is faced with the task of parenting her eight grandchildren. She sometimes can't even remember their names. She stays in [Impola 00:01:32] Village. The days of her youth and energy are long gone. Ugogo Maria has seen two generations of her family wiped out by AIDS. She now takes care of her grandchildren and her great-grandchildren. Last year was a difficult year for this family. They had to burry Maria's grandson who died from an AIDS illness. He left behind his four children.

Maria Mzimela:                 [foreign language 00:01:57].

Narrator:                             The illness and the death of her grandson were not easy on ugogo Maria and the children. His funeral was also costly.

Maria Mzimela:                 [foreign language 00:02:56].

Narrator:                             The youngest child in ugogo Maria's charge is only 11 months old. The children need to be fed, clothed and helped with homework. She is too old to be doing that, she says, but she's the only one they can count on.

Maria Mzimela:                 [foreign language 00:03:20].

Narrator:                             Ugogo Maria's own needs come last.

Maria Mzimela:                 [foreign language 00:03:47].

Narrator:                             [inaudible 00:04:02] are volunteers from Saint Mary's Community Outreach Programme. Today the youth of [Desai 00:04:11] Township in KwaZulu-Natal are attending a training session. With the help of Sister [Mtalani 00:04:16], they hope to become qualified home-based carers. They are not paid, all they will get to do their work is the contents of these bag. Their duties will range from counselling and washing the patients to even collecting the patients' medicine from the local clinics and hospital.

Sister Mtalani:                   [foreign language 00:04:37].

Narrator:                             AIDS has hit home for many in this room.

Sister Mtalani:                   [foreign language 00:05:22].

Narrator:                             Most of them have either had to deal with someone close to them who's suffering from AIDS related illnesses or someone who died from it.

Sister Mtalani:                   [foreign language 00:05:36].

Narrator:                             This personal experiences motivated people like Sibongiseni [Mgoni 00:05:43] to help patients that are facing a sense of despair. It's volunteers like him that are eyes and ears of the community. Their biggest challenge is the increasing number of those around them suffering from AIDS illnesses. Communities that are lucky enough to have home-based carers, can at least enjoy the fruits of having someone taking care of the patients' medical, physical and emotional needs.

Narrator:                             For most patients, becoming ill is a difficult journey. Most can no longer work and they have lost their income. These volunteers dedicate their time, often they're their patients only hope in life and they're their only comfort in dying. And with every death, someone is left behind to mourn a daughter or son, mother or dad.

Ronita Mahilall:                 The moms and the dads are either they're infected by HIV and AIDS or either have died from it and now the grandmothers and the grandfathers, but more so the grandmothers, are going to have to care for these children from infancy, right after school and get them educated. So it's quite a burden on them also remembering that the grandmothers are very ill themselves, they're impoverished themselves.

Narrator:                             Many rely on the visits from these volunteers and ugogo Maria's family is one of those. She was first introduced to Sibongiseni during her grandson's illness. Since then, she too became ill. She needs three injections a day for diabetes, an illness that is now also costing her [inaudible 00:07:21]. Sibongiseni has once again become a frequent visitor to this family.

Sibongiseni M.:                 [foreign language 00:07:28].

Maria Mzimela:                 [foreign language 00:07:29].

Sibongiseni M.:                 [foreign language 00:07:31].

Maria Mzimela:                 [foreign language 00:07:34].

Narrator:                             Maria's pension is not only spent on food and clothes for the children.

Maria Mzimela:                 [foreign language 00:07:51].

Ronita Mahilall:                 For an 84-year old granny to be looking after an 11-month old baby, whether it's her own grandchild or a relative or even if it's permanent or temporary, I think that is probably not on and it shouldn't be on.

Thembi N.:                          We've got the CSG, which is the Child Support Grant, we've got the Foster Care Grant, we've got the Grant in Aid, we've got a number of grants that could be accessed. But I think what we're looking at is to strengthen the family so that it does not just becomes the responsibility of that particular granny but then we go back to our strength as a nation to look into the extended families, to look into all the elements of survival that we've always had.

Narrator:                             Kwa Thabeng Township in Clarmorl, KwaZulu-Natal, many of the youth in this community are unemployed and here too, grandmothers are becoming heads of families.

Theresa N.:                         [foreign language 00:08:56].

Narrator:                             Seven years ago, Theresa [Nglobo 00:09:11] qualified for a pension of R640 a month. She stays with her unemployed daughters and her grandchildren.

Theresa N.:                         [foreign language 00:09:20].

Narrator:                             Theresa buried one of her daughters last year. She also died from AIDS. And when she went, three of her daughter were left in ugogo Theresa's care.

Theresa N.:                         [foreign language 00:09:51].

Narrator:                             It's been difficult for ugogo Theresa to access the R120 childcare grant.

Theresa N.:                         [foreign language 00:10:24].

Ronita Mahilall:                 Families don't have the birth documents in order to access those grants. They often, the moms and dads, pass away without leaving any documentation. The child's birth is not registered, their births were not registered so their deaths therefore cannot be registered. And how do you apply for a grant when you don't have those documents? So there's money available we're fully aware of it but how to access it is the problem.

Thembi N.:                          Each and every person that is entitled to a grant has to access that grant. Now, together with the Department of Home Affairs, we are going into communities with mobile units to enable communities to register the birth, for the grannies to get the birth certificates and all that. So at least there is some effort that government is doing to enable easier accessibility of the grants.

Narrator:                             Coffee Farm, another township in KwaZulu-Natal. Five months ago, Agnes Mandengu came to bury her two daughters here. Now she's had to abandon her home in Empangeni to look after her grandchildren and her great-granddaughter.

Agnes Mandengu:           [foreign language 00:11:31].

Narrator:                             No one works in this family. The death of both mothers from AIDS has left this family desperate. And the children demand a lot of attention and money, five of them are still in school.

Agnes Mandengu:           [foreign language 00:12:02].

Narrator:                             At 57, Agnes doesn't qualify for a pension. She says she's alone and has no one to help her.

Agnes Mandengu:           [foreign language 00:12:23].

Children:                              [foreign language 00:12:35].

Narrator:                             Now, Agnes plans to go back home with the three young ones. She will leave the other two with their 17-year old sister. Once she has a bit of money, she will come back for them. Things are difficult since her only income was from her daughters who passed away.

Agnes Mandengu:           [foreign language 00:12:58].

Narrator:                             Agnes sees a bright future for her grandchildren. She knows she too can't live forever and then the children will have no one.

Agnes Mandengu:           [foreign language 00:13:22].

Thembi N.:                          You find that our Social Assistance Act also allows that for distressed families. We're even campaigning it for persons to take them through maybe for period of three months. And that is just to enable that family, that if that family has falling through the SafetyNet, which is the grants, the three-month period will enable that family to come into the grant. So by the time we've moved out with the three month, at least there is a grant that is there. Then we begin to link them up to some existing community projects.

Narrator:                             Agnes knows nothing about this help the government offers and even if she did, she wouldn't know how to start accessing it. Her life is a daily battle as it is. To her, the government's grant policies seem very far away.

Narrator:                             From the rural areas to the inner city, the plight of families and grandmothers stays the same. In Westbury, Johannesburg, the Minaar family also has to raise children left orphaned by AIDS.

Gertrude Minaar:            [foreign language 00:14:47]. Now you have to share yourself, you have to open your arms for both of them. You can't push this child away and say, "I'm not your mom." Because again, [foreign language 00:15:11].

Ellen Minaar:                      [foreign language 00:15:19]. All my grandchildren, grand grandchildren call me momma. [foreign language 00:15:24].

Narrator:                             Every Sunday the Minaar family gets to together. In a time of great difficult they draw strength from each other. Granny Ellen and her unemployed daughter Gertrude, say they have tried to get help through many channels. They have gone to the Social Welfare Department and to various social workers. Every time, a door closed instead of opening. It was a struggle from the start to keep the children. And once they aged, the family feared the children will be taken away from them. Throughout their ordeal, the social workers ask more questions than offering solutions.

Gertrude Minaar:            [foreign language 00:16:11].

Thembi N.:                          The requirements for a foster care, it's the court order indicating foster care status. It is the ID document of birth certificate bearing the 13-digit ID number in respect of the child and then it's the means test. Those are the requirements [inaudible 00:17:39]. I'm not aware of the requirement for the father to give consent.

Narrator:                             Granny Ellen's pension is not enough to care for her six grandchildren. But recently, things improved when the eldest grandson, Henry, found a job. He's 25 years old and also an orphan.

Ellen Minaar:                      I'm buying tea, sugar, [inaudible 00:18:06], flour and [inaudible 00:18:13], meat but sometimes [foreign language 00:18:19].

Henry Minaar:                   Apart from her pension, I need to provide with the salary I get. So whatever, buying food, [inaudible 00:18:33] with the kids when they get up in the morning, there's food on the table, maybe giving them some [inaudible 00:18:38] to go to school. Just provide and make it a little bit easier on her.

Narrator:                             The six grandchildren know that they don't know have a mother. For them, granny Ellen is now mom. But at the time of their mother's death, two of the children were still babies. For Granny Ellen and her family, dealing with her daughter's illness was difficult.

Gertrude Minaar:            [foreign language 00:19:04].

Ellen Minaar:                      [foreign language 00:19:04].

Gertrude Minaar:            [foreign language 00:19:04].

Narrator:                             The family says they find strength in prayer and in each other's closeness.

Gertrude Minaar:            [foreign language 00:20:07].

Narrator:                             They also receive love and support from the community they live in. Granny Ellen says her small pension does not fill all the holes. They try to make the money stretch to meet all six children's needs. But what makes it almost impossible is that all the children are still in school. So it's not only food but everything that goes along with growing children. All this for so many from an old lady's pension.

Voughen Minaar:             I love my granny because she's really warm-hearted and she supports us in everything we do, she always encourages us to go on not to quit.

Narrator:                             For three years, Granny Ellen has been doing the impossible. For this family, a little help would go a long way, help they hope will come from government.

Thembi N.:                          It is quite difficult to say we can reach everyone at the same time but I can assure you that we've got those programmes. They've been rolled in all the provinces. And I can as well say that if those grannies know of an institution nearby, be it a church, be it an NGO, be it a government department, be it a local council, whatever, it is important that our people must know that those are the structures that are there for them to access. So it assists us as government.

Narrator:                             [Ije Elimnyama 00:21:54] is another informal settlement in KwaZulu-Natal. It is home to ugogo Emily [Shozi 00:22:06]. She has 10 mouths to feed. Five are unemployed children and the other five her grandchildren. She's angry with the men who abandoned her children and grandchildren. She doesn't even know who they are, she has never seen them.

Emily Shozi:                        [foreign language 00:22:24].

Narrator:                             As she gives the grandchildren sugar water to eat, the poverty she faces becomes clear.

Thembi N.:                          We are responding to these issues and it's coming up very fast. And in some instances, it catches up with us before we've been able to roll out efficiently some of these programmes.

Narrator:                             At 74, Emily has no option but to show a fighting spirit for her family.

Emily Shozi:                        [foreign language 00:23:25].

Narrator:                             She's the only one with an income. She supplements her pension with a few rands she gets from a two-day a week part-time job.

Emily Shozi:                        [foreign language 00:23:37].

Narrator:                             At the age of 74, one should be enjoying the fruits of her life's labour but for Emily and many other grandmothers, they instead are raising a whole new generation of children.

Emily Shozi:                        [foreign language 00:24:05].