Supporting Ugandan grandparent-headed households through COVID-19 lockdown

Rose’s daughter died before telling her who the children's father was. They now stay with Rose and struggle to access school as she has no source of income.

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Since the Ugandan government announced an enforced lockdown due to the threat of coronavirus, Children on the Edge Africa have been delivering vital supplies to some of the most vulnerable households in the slum communities surrounding Jinja. 
 
Due to the prevalence of AIDS and its devastating effects in the area, there are a high number of grandparent headed families, mostly run by elderly women, providing for an average of five children whose parents have died or gone missing.

Anna is 72 years old and looks after eight children by herself. Two are the children of her daughter who has passed away and two belong to her son who went missing some years back. The other four are her neighbour's, who died suddenly when she fell onto electric wires. No one has ever come forward to claim these children, so Anna takes care of them. One of them is only seven months old. ​

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Orphaned children living with elderly relatives are significantly less likely to receive an education and UNICEF estimates that families supported by grandparents experience poverty rates up to 29% per cent above average. 
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In households robbed of the wage earning generation, poverty is already rampant, so the consequences of the recent lockdown in Uganda could be catastrophic for these families. With the older generation being most vulnerable to the pandemic, there is a risk of hundreds of children who are currently looked after by a grandparent being left alone.

Gladys takes care of her two grandchildren that belong to her son, who disappeared two years ago. They all depend on the small garden they have at the nearby hillside, but she has recently fallen sick so cannot harvest and sell her vegetables. ​

Over the last week, Babra, Isaac and Jackson from Children on the Edge Africa visited all five slum communities we support surrounding Jinja, delivering parcels of maize flour and beans to grandparent headed households who have struggled to provide for the children they care for during the lockdown. Babra says, “I just wish you could see the smiles on their faces when we give them the package”. ​

Scovia suffered a stroke and now she can’t do anything on her own.  However, she has three grandchildren to provide for; they take her to the mosques to beg for alms and food, but on lockdown cannot go out. 

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From the start of April we have reached an agreement with the local government that we can facilitate a fortnightly distribution to 50 of the most vulnerable families. Two bars of soaps will be added to the bags of maize and beans and we will be monitoring the situation closely, with a possible scale up in a few weeks time. ​

Winnie Biira, CEO of Children on the edge Africa said “I commend  the entire Children on the Edge Africa team for all the efforts they have put into this exercise, and the UK team for supporting us and enabling us to reach out. Together we shall fight this virus”. ​

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