Tigua Lungu and her husband Madson Miranzi take care of ten grandchildren at their home on the edge of Makwatata village. They are among tens of thousands of grandparents all over Zambia who are responsible for providing primary care to children.

“Three of the children who live with us are orphans who lost their parents to HIV. They have no one else to look after them,” says Tigua. “The others are here because their parents think we will look after them well.”

The parents who are alive all live in Makwatata village, and come to visit their children regularly, but the grandparents are their primary care givers.

The rise in the number of children orphaned by HIV has contributed to a rise in the number living with grandparents, but there is a long tradition in Zambian culture whereby children are sent by their parents to be cared for by grandparents. Many children, especially young girls, are often sent to look after or provide company to the elderly, especially to widows living alone.

Tigua and her husband are both in their late 50s, and have been farmers all their lives. They grow cotton, maize, sunflowers and groundnuts on their farm, close to Makwatata village.

“Our harvest is never enough to feed the whole family, especially now that there are so many children living with us. We are both weaker now than we used to be so we cannot work as hard, and I know things will only get worse as the years go on,” Tigua says.

80 per cent of Zambian households headed by elderly people are poor, and the older the person gets, the poorer the household becomes as their ability to support the family declines. Children living with grandparents are therefore more susceptible to poverty and malnutrition, and are also much more likely to drop out of school early than children who live with both parents.

However, Tigua stresses that all the children of school-going age in her care attend full time education. “Their parents provide the money that we need to send them to school.”

This year has been particularly tough for the family. Madson Miranzi has been supplementing the couple’s farming income for the past 25 years by keeping bees. He used to make little or no money from beekeeping, but since the Forestry Department introduced special incentives, the demand for honey has risen and he has been able to make a good profit, about 3500Kw (€0.55) per kilo. Beehives yield honey every three months, providing a year-round supplementary income for the family.

“Late last year, thieves came to steal the honey and destroyed his nine beehives,” explains Tigua. “Since then, we have not made any money from selling honey. But my husband has rebuilt them now, and hopefully we will be able to sell some in a month’s time and use the money to buy some extra food for the children.”