Today was a travel day. We took a plane from Cape Town to Durban and then drove about 40 minutes to Pinetown where we will stay for the next 2 nights. We had a wonderful, long, drawn-out dinner at the hotel – singing and dancing and speeches and presentations and more singing and dancing - with executive and local members of the Grandmothers Movement in South Africa (GMISA). South African grandmothers have courageously held families and communities together in the face of unrelenting hardships, including loss, grief, stigma and discrimination, and deserve recognition, support and influence going forward. Building on the momentum of the 2016 South African Grandmothers Gathering, GMISA grandmothers organized, mobilized and registered GMISA in 2018. GMISA has been a Stephen Lewis Foundation partner since 2021. GMISA grandmothers envision a society where they are respected, recognized, valued, cared for, and their immense contributions are acknowledged. Mama Darlina is the chairperson. I also met her in Winnipeg at the International Grandmothers Gathering in 2023. She is a dynamo and the author of my favourite quote from the book “Powered By Love”. “It's older women who've got a lifetime experience of being oppressed. Tell me who has to be stronger on this planet than an African woman? So if you make it to be an older African woman you must be the strongest of all.”

However we heard a few things that made it seem like this is going to be an uphill battle. These seasoned activists are ready but …

• Every time some local VIP welcomes us it is a man. Tonight’s man, representing the mayor, mentioned in his speech that men have to work and women have to stay at home!
• We learned that there is a child support grant of 500 rands (about $40) per month per child that is available to caregivers, with an additional 200 rands if the parents are dead. However there is a much bigger grant (over an additional 1000 rands per month) called a foster care grant that used to be available to grandmothers raising their grandchildren but has recently been cancelled for all caregivers who are related to the people they are caring for. ☹
• Mama Eunice told some hair-raising stories about her thwarted attempts to convince grandmothers in the small villages to join the movement. (Her photo is below too, in the green shirt.)
• The executive members are getting quite old and worrying about who is going to replace them. Mama Darlina is going to be 79 this year. She is the same age as the oldest member of our group. The photo below is of the two of them together.

Luckily, Jenny, one of the SLF's field workers, was on the same plane as we were from Cape Town to Durban and she is here to spend some time with GMISA helping them come up with a strategic plan. 

A fabulously energetic troupe of young women dancers (ages 12 – 21), all who had been raised by grandmothers, and who are coached by one of the GMISA members, entertained us before dinner. They called them “the maidens” and apparently they are only allowed to stay in the troupe if they remain virgins. This is a requirement designed to protect them. The dancing involves a lot of putting yourself out there in front of the troupe and showing off your own personal skills; it must be a great confidence builder for them. They also dance once per year for the king. Some of the alumni who have gone on to get married come back and talk to the girls about how important it is to save yourself for your husband. (We all agreed that we would prefer the message to be something about self-respect and independence but there you go.)

Before the maidens danced we were practising our version of “Powered by Love” which we performed later in the night and lots of the South African grannies got up and danced with us. That was actually more fun than the performance itself.

The evening was thought-provoking, and we have three partner visits, three full days, coming up. Good night!