Grandparents as caretakers due to HIV

     Due to the HIV crsis in the Kisumu area of Kenya, there is a whole generation of young people who have lost both parents. As a results many grandparents have involuntarily stepped in to raise their grandchildren. We went to a more rural part of Kisumu and met a grandfather raising 6 children by himself

and a grandmother raising three children by herself.

     Both are fortunate that their clan owns the land that they live on so they pay no rent. The area is much cleaner than the slum we saw earlier.

The grandfather used a loan from the Unbound mother's group to start a fish business. The grandmother tries to feed her family through farming, but sometimes the weather does not cooperate.
       We were warmly welcomed.

Outside I saw many women washing their clothes in muddy rain water and hanging their clothes over bushes to dry.