Grandmothers Organized in Global Oneness & Robin Goff
Grannie Relief -By Robin GoffG.O.G.O.: Grandmothers Organized in Global Oneness is an alliance that has come together to raise the voices of the grandmothers everywhere. It arose in response to the incredible work being carried by the grandmothers in South Africa who are doing the lions share of the work of the AIDS orphan crisis. The same story repeats itself throughout Sub-Saharan Africa where UNICEF predicts there will be 42 million orphaned children by 2010. Those staggering numbers are beyond our grasp. For 25 years now the AIDS pandemic has spread and conventional means of addressing it have not been effective for a myriad of reasons. Now it is time for the grandmothers to speak up and be heard.
Throughout history, the grandmothers in indigenous cultures were the ones to advise, guide and steer the villages. Before going off to war or making important decisions the men sought the council of the wise elder women. It was traditionally the grandmothers who would be planning ahead for the ways the tribe would survive the winter ahead or how they would feed the children. Humanity is facing difficult times right now. Have we sought the wisdom of the grandmothers? Globally, we are dealing with staggering conditions with pandemics, wars and natural disasters. Frequently it is the older women who role up their sleeves, put on the pot of soup and comfort the babies. In South Africa, I have seen women my age (60) and much older, who have buried their own children and kept going through their grief to tend to the orphaned children. They do what needs to be done despite their own weariness. They are the ones the children need the most now. G.O.G.O., the acronym derived from the Zulu word for grandma, also is raising the awareness of their situation and the question of how can we support the gogos for the long haul. The difference in our approach is that we come to the grandmothers with questions rather than answers. The grandmothers know what is needed to serve the needs of the children and they deserve to be heard.
Lawrence author, Pam Grout, is joining in to help create a book to amplify the voices of the grandmothers. The book will gather messages from grandmothers around the world who are the real heroes in the trenches. They know something about tending the sick and dying, raising babies and providing food to nourish the people. Currently, there are two Overland Park women spending a full year in South Africa talking with the gogos and assessing their needs. Together they are building whole foods gardens, teaching non-violence communication and helping the children to express their inner experience. Trainings and support are being offered to those who are in the caregiver role as well. With minimal training people who have never been caregivers before are thrust into the difficult work of caring for people with AIDS. Watching young people die is challenging work. Our project teaches self-care as well as giving caregivers simple and effective tools for symptom management where pharmaceuticals are scarce.
From its start in South Africa GOGO has quickly encountered other people doing grass roots projects in response to the AIDS pandemic. People just like you and I are rapidly waking up to the needs feel compelled to respond. One such person is Mininder Kaur a Lawrence physician who has served recently in Zimbabwe and Haiti.
In the U.S. we have been very insulated from the problems facing humanity. Once a person awakens to the global crises facing our human family, each one of us needs to respond. I for one am listening to the grandmothers. I, for one, am speaking up. I am concerned about the future for my own grandchildren and how their generation will survive the winters ahead. It is time to seek new solutions and new lifestyles that consider the needs of the children. Spending on humanitarian service must be elevated above spending so much of our resources on wars.
I suggest that we need to create quiet centers for peace and respite for the grandmothers in the midst of the chaotic conditions in our world,. How can we make it a priority to create healing oases in the midst of such terrible human suffering? I ask how can we not? How can we take time out for care for the caregivers, when there is so much work to be done? I ask how can we not? People might wonder how we can target inner peace when people are sick and dying? I ask how can we not? There is no greater work to be done. Grandmothers know the softer, quieter side of the devastation of humanity. They feel the heartache that defies words. They know the pain of loss in an orphan’s heart that needs the comfort of a gogos arms more than any prescription. How do we keep hope for the way ahead where despair abounds? How does humanity step up to the magnitude of 42 million orphaned children? Personally, I am putting my money on the grandmothers.
Robin Goff is the director and founder of The Light Center near Baldwin , KS. Join in on a day of exploring Grandmothers Organized in Global Oneness on Saturday, Sept 23 at The Light Center. Info@lightcenter.info or 785 255 4583 www.lovelight.info
posted by emccabemusic @ 11:11 PM
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