About this project
The Project
Thousands of grandmothers across South Africa are having to cope with the consequences of the AIDS pandemic, at a time when they had hoped to retire and be cared for by their families.
These grannies are taking on greater responsibility than they could ever have imagined as they care for their own ill and dying children, and become parents to their orphaned grandchildren.
Supergrannies is a photo exhibition about a group of grandmothers who are showing extraordinary grit, care for others and even humour, despite the heavy burdens they carry. The grannies in the exhibition are among the many who have formed a support and activist group called Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS. This organization, they say, “is keeping us alive”.
Acclaimed South African photojournalist Eric Miller has captured the struggle and spirit of 17 grandmothers in intimate portraits and vivid portrayals of their daily lives. The photographs will be combined with excerpts from the grandmothers’ life stories, documented by award-winning South African journalist Jo-Anne Smetherham.
We intend to install a photo exhibit in both Cape Town, South Africa, in May 2011, and Washington DC, USA, from July-September 2011. The exhibit will form the foundation of a book about the grannies’ lives. At both exhibits we plan to feature three South African grandmother leaders from GAPA, along with Eric and Jo-Anne.
We will launch the pledging in sections, first for the photo exhibit, and later for the book.
These Supergrannies have won our hearts. We hope they will win yours, too.
More about Supergrannies
Our project acknowledges the challenges the grannies face but also celebrates their enormous power and strength in their communities, as both carers and activists.
GAPA has taught thousands of grannies skills from parenting to first-aid, vegetable gardening and income-generation through handcrafts. In helping to keep each other going, these grandmothers are helping to keep many orphans fed and educated. “My sisters at GAPA counsel me, they comfort me. Without them, I would be dead by now,” says Mrs. Mdaka, a GAPA co-founder.
The grannies at GAPA say the organization has changed their lives. Visitors see that this is true. When the grannies get together to sing and dance, they raise the roof. They even get together at bus stops to hand out condoms to educate the passers-by about safe sex, singing and dancing as they do so.
Our Long Term Goals
Our ultimate goal is to raise global awareness and a sense of social responsibility, while generating ongoing support for GAPA. We want to continue helping the organization in its current activities and as well as with similar initiatives in other areas of South Africa and in other African countries. GAPA has already begun this work, helping grandmothers to set up similar projects in other provinces of South Africa, as well as in Tanzania.
FAQ
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79
Backers
$7,040
pledged of $7,000 goal
0
seconds to go
Funding Successful
This project successfully raised its funding goal on January 12, 2011.
Pledge $1 or more Pledge $1 or more
If you pledge 1 dollar to 24 dollars you will receive a grandmother portrait post card containing a heart felt thank you message from one of the grandmothers at GAPA.
Pledge $25 or more Pledge $25 or more
If you pledge 25 dollars to 99 dollars you will receive a special thank you letter along with a homemade AIDS awareness beaded pin made by the grandmothers of GAPA.
Pledge $100 or more Pledge $100 or more
If you pledge 100 dollars to 499 dollars you will receive a special archival professional print of a South African "Super Granny".
Pledge $500 or more Pledge $500 or more
If you pledge $500 dollars of more your name will appear on the Thank You page in the printed book of the photographs when it is launched and you will also receive an archival professional print of a "Super Granny."
Project By
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--Savannah Eck-- (B.A., Old Dominion University) is a graduate student at Old Dominion University studying to get her degree in International Relations: Conflict and Cooperation with a certificate in Women’s Studies. She is an avid supporter of women’s rights and recently worked at GAPA on a service learning study abroad. Her motivation lies in continued work for women and human rights advocacy. GAPA’s model has inspired her personal commitment to continue to lend her voice as a means to both enhance their service and work and advocate for the larger development goals central to the tangible work of this organization.
--Eric Miller--is one of the most experienced photojournalists working in South Africa. In the 1980s, he documented the struggle against apartheid and since the 1990s he covered various aspects of the transformation process in South Africa, as well as travelling extensively across Africa for various European publications. He has worked on a range of assignments, from news-related stories covering the horrors of the Rwandan genocide and famine in Sudan, to human interest features such as women's boxing, the training of sangomas (traditional healers) and various evocative essays documenting social issues in local communities across the continent. Miller works as a freelancer, mostly on assignment for a variety of European newspapers and magazines, as well as for both South African and international NGOs.
--Jennifer N. Fish-- (Ph.D., American University) is Chair of the Department of Women’s Studies at Old Dominion University, where she also teaches in the Graduate Program in International Studies and leads annual global studies courses in South Africa. Her research interests focus on post-conflict development, with particular emphasis on women’s roles in restructuring society. For the past fifteen years, she has worked on South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy through appointments with the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, the University of Cape Town, and consultancies with the South African Domestic Service and Allied Workers Union, the Commission on Gender Equality, and Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS.
--Jo-Anne Smetherham-- has been thrashing about with words for more than 12 years as a newspaper and magazine journalist. She is passionate about covering health, education, the environment and other issues of social justice, but has also written many stories about general news, human interest and travel. She started off as health writer for the Cape Times, the English morning daily newspaper in Cape Town, then worked in Dublin sub-editing for Ireland on Sunday and the Irish Independent. Now she is freelancing. Her writing has appeared in all daily Independent titles in South Africa as well as South Africa’s Sunday Independent, Ireland on Sunday, the Irish Independent, local magazines Men’s Health, Best Life, Femina, Marie Claire and Weg!/Go!. Real greatness, she believes, comes from behaving in extraordinary ways, in near-impossible circumstances. She has discovered many such stories of greatness in South Africa – but the grannies’ stories come out tops. Excerpts from some of her recent work can be found on www.outwrite.co.za
