The Granny Connection is deeply dedicated to providing support, advocacy, and funding to grandmothers in Africa who are raising children orphaned by AIDS.
The magnanimous grandmothers of Africa bury their own children from AIDS and then take on the care of their grandchildren orphaned by the disease. Poverty, lack of health care, and the lack of resources create additional hardships on these already burdened grandmothers.
In 2008, a group of women in Columbus, Indiana, began its organizing and advocacy work on behalf of these deserving grandmothers. This group, the Granny Connection, focuses on raising funds to help ease the plight of African grandmothers and their orphaned grandchildren. In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, 40 – 60% of AIDS orphans are living in extreme poverty in grandmother-headed households. The challenges they face are overwhelming. The Granny Connection works to offer hope and opportunity for these women and children. Money raised has enabled children to receive supervised medical care and benefitted hundreds of other children and grandmothers by providing social, medical, and/or emotional support. Through various fund-raising activities from March 2008 through May 2023 the Granny Connection has raised and sent $252, 500, to Zambia’s Power of Love Foundation. As we started micro-loans in 2008, we had 50 women in the program. We now have 600 women with their own businesses. The children’s care program now supervises 500 families and in 2008, the starting number of families was 50.
The Granny Connection group works to:
- Ensure that children in Arms Reach Care program of Lusaka, Zambia, are in school and stay in school for as long as possible.
- Provide money for micro-loan programs for Zambian grandmothers
- Provide a pilot program for clean water for families
- Provide food, medicines, and weekly health check-ups by the community case assistants
- Provide psychosocial counseling for all children in the program
- Provide ongoing refresher training to family care givers and community care assistants
Granny Connection has proudly provided the following:
- A youth group in Malawi, $10,000 towards AIDS education and testing
- Funding for HIV outbreak in Indiana
- Funding for ART for AIDS program on World AIDS Day
The Columbus Granny Connection is currently planning fundraising activities for the 2024 year. In concurrence with raising money for Zambian grandmothers and children, the Granny Connection remains committed to raising awareness in our community about the challenges of AIDS through our website, periodic letters to the editor, political advocacy, selling our pecans at Farmer’s Market, and planning at least one yearly community wide event which will focus on our mission. A lot of our activity depends on the status of our health and that of the community. In 2023 we had a lovely evening of Celtic music provided by Laughing Jack Band and Irish dancers from Indianapolis. Along with a fun raffle, this community event took place at Southside School.
As we continue to help grandmothers in Africa secure a hopeful and healthy future for themselves and their grandchildren, we invite other grandmothers and “grandothers” to join us in supporting our African counterparts. We sell glazed pecans that we make all year to raise money for the families in our program.
We try to raise awareness about the continuing AIDS crisis in our state and world. On Dec 1st, World AIDS Day, we decorate our downtown with red scarves knitted and crocheted by the community, with special help from the Mill Race Center. For more information, phone 812-342-4680, email to grannyconnection@gmail.com.