business taking bananas to market. This involved buying a huge and heavy
bunch of bananas from a neighbour (his granny had no shamba of her own to
grow bananas) and then pushing the bicycle up and down hills to get to the
market where he sold the bananas and then returned home to pay the
neighbour his share, keeping the rest to buy food for him and his granny and
small sister.
Looking after granny
Children living in elderly-headed households have extra work related to
looking after their grandparents. They wash their grandmother’s clothes, cook
for them when sick and do basic hygiene tasks such as shaving their hair,
taking sand fleas (jiggers) out of their feet and even cutting their fingernails.
-
What are some of the things you do especially for granny?
- Shaving hair.
- Taking out jiggers (sand fleas) from her feet.
- Cutting her nails.
- Cooking for her.
- Washing her clothes
- When she is sick I go to look for herbs in the field.
- When she is sick I cook for her.
I am fetching water and then cooking for my granny.
The fact that many of the children lived with very old grannies who were often
sick added to their burden.
I feel bad having the granny who is always sick. Because when she is
not sick we come from school and we find food ready and then we do
other activities. But when she is sick we don’t get food and we have to
cook. When she is sick we sometimes even don’t go to school. You
may wake up and find she is sick. She tells you she needs porridge so
instead of going to school you have to stay home and prepare porridge
for her. Then you stay home until a neighbour comes and then you go
to get herbs for her.
Time for myself
It is also clear that children living in elderly-headed households have much
less time to themselves because they have a heavier workload.
- I am working so from Monday to Friday I don’t get any time for my
own things. I would like that at least on Thursday I would get some
time.
- The only time to play is at school.
- We have some time to rest while at school. And do activities like play
games and talk to friends. At home we are always kept busy with home
activities (chores)
Playing soccer
We discussed with the children how it made them feel when they did not have
time for themselves. This is what they said.
If you don’t get time off you feel abandoned in what you are doing.
- You need time for resting.
- If you are done with your activities you have to play.
- I feel not okay if I don’t have time to play.
- I feel angry because it is my right to play.
- I feel bad. I feel unhappy.
If you get time to play and read, you feel that you are being cared for. If
you already have a lot of work it is nice to get permission to go and
play some games.
- When you get time enough to talk to your friend you relax and you
just cool off, have no worries about hard work and then after you rest
you can switch on again with daily jobs.
- You need time to talk to friends to exchange ideas.
A finding from the accompanying study on the impact of pensions is worth
quoting here. In this study it was clear that the children who came from homes
that were getting a small pension did far less earning work and had far more
free time than those who were not receiving a pension. The money meant that
granny could pay for someone else to do the heavier work, the children did
not have to do so much work to earn money and consequently had time to
play, read, do school work or just think. The positive impact of this on psycho-
social health is obvious from the comments the children have made.
No resentment
It is important to highlight something else that emerged from the discussions
with the children. They do not resent the fact that they work harder than
children who live in parent-headed households.
I feel bad because I miss my personal time but I just read the situation
the way it is. If my granny stops me from doing my personal activities, I
just be patient because there is nothing I can do.
They show a deep sense of responsibility and a sense of pride in being able
to help granny.
The good thing about living with our granny is because they are old we
feel responsible to take care of them.
I say that taking jiggers
9
(sand fleas) out of grannies feet is something I
like to do because if people see my gran with jiggers it’s a shame on
me, they will say to her, you have kids but they don’t take the jiggers
out.
The tasks they said they liked the most were often ones that involved looking
after granny.
Taking jiggers out of granny’s feet
Washing granny’s clothes
When asked why these were their favourite tasks they replied.
I like to do the work to look after my granny. It is easy because I love
her.
3. Children living with granny are poorer
Another theme that emerged very strongly is that children living in elderly-
headed households are generally poorer than children living in households
with parents.
9
Jiggers are very small sand fleas that need to be dug out of the feet. If they are not taken out they
become infected. Having infected sores on the feet from jiggers is a sign that the person is not looked
after or does not care for themselves.