Grandmothers in Action
Judi Aubel: Girls Holistic Development
Founder & Executive Director, Grandmother Project (GMP): Change through Culture, an American and Senegalese non-profit organization. Often culture is seen as an obstacle. GMP views cultural roles and values as essential elements for promoting sustained change. Judi leads the development of an innovative approach to leverage the influential role of grandmothers in Africa, Asia and Latin America to promote community-wide, positive change for women, children and especially girls. GMP’s grandmother-inclusive strategy has shown that grandmothers can be catalysts for change related to complex issues including: maternal and child health/nutrition; early/forced marriage; teen pregnancy; female genital mutilation; girls’ education. GMP builds capacity of other organizations on grandmother-inclusive and intergenerational approaches to promote community-driven, sustained change. GMP has found that grandmothers are an abundant but underutilized resource for promoting positive change in communities.
Dixon Chibanda: Why I train grandmothers to treat depression
Dixon Chibanda is one of 12 psychiatrists in Zimbabwe -- for a population of more than 16 million. Realizing that his country would never be able to scale traditional methods of treating those with mental health issues, Chibanda helped to develop a beautiful solution powered by a limitless resource: grandmothers. In this extraordinary, inspirational talk, learn more about the friendship bench program, which trains grandmothers in evidence-based talk therapy and brings care, and hope, to those in need.
Nyaka: Grandmothers addressing HIV/Aids in Uganda
Using a home-based model of care, an organization in Uganda, Nyaka, has developed tools to combat the continued effects of HIV and Aids. 15,000 grandmothers support 60,000 children who may or may not be their biological children to be raised in environments of love and care. Theirs is a holistic and intergenerational model that values grandmothers as resources to pass on cultural values and ensure young people are able to thrive.
