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Scores of South African grandmothers don’t enjoy peaceful retirement. In the autumn of their lives, many are still in the midst of raising children. HIV/AIDS has taken their sons and daughters, leaving them with the burden of raising their grandchildren. The loss of parents to HIV/AIDS has created 1.9 million orphans in South Africa. According to UNICEF, 64 percent of the orphans are being cared for by a grandparent. Most of the families live in poverty either in the rural areas or in the over crowded townships in big cities. Growing up in an urban township is challenging for any child. Neighborhoods are crowded and unemployment is high, along with prostitution, alcohol abuse, poverty, and crime. HIV/AIDS orphans are at even greater risk in these locations. Studies show this traumatized group is quicker to go down the wrong path and to display antisocial behavior. HIV/AIDS orphans also become sexually active younger, exposing them to HIV earlier... and so the destructive cycle continues; a cycle that these strong grandmothers try to stop.

The AIDS epidemic has hit South Africa hard. With 5.4 million HIV patients, the country ranks first in the world in number of infections. According to figures from 2011, 10.6 percent of the population has HIV. For a long time, the disease was ignored in South Africa and the government was recommending beets and lemons as medicine. Antiretroviral drugs (ARV’s) only became gradually available in 2004. The 2011 Census of South Africa released at the end of October indicates that 3.37 million children aged between one and 17 have lost either one or both parents. Many of these children have lost their parents to AIDS.

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This feature was shot August-November 2012.