Grassroots women from Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon and Nigeria began the second day of the World Social Forum today, singing and dancing their way around the Moi International Sports Centre. They drew attention to the way that they, home-based caregivers and organizers of the Home-Based Care Alliance in Africa, are turning the HIV/AIDS Pandemic into a development opportunity.

After the march, members of GROOTS convened at the GROOTS Kenya booth, fielding questions and sharing information about their movement with donors, friends, media and other interested people. At least four members of GROOTS were interviewed by various media (including the BBC), and were able to raise the visibility of their local work, and their national and international networks, including the Home-Based Care Alliance and GROOTS International.

“Civil society is taking too long to recognize the capacity of grassroots women.” –Esther Mwaura-Muiru

GROOTS members continued to raise the visibility of their largely un-recognized work at a workshop attended by over 400 people this afternoon, entitled “Turning the HIV/AIDS Pandemic into a Development Opportunity.” In this workshop, facilitated by Esther Mwaura-Muiru, Mathilde, a caregiver from the Uganda Community Based Organization for Child Welfare (UCOBAC) along with Jenipher and Violet from GROOTS Kenya shared the ways that they are using the opportunities presented by the tragedy of HIV/AIDS to improve their communities and the position of women in society.

Mathilde began the presentations by discussing the ways that social fabrics in Africa have been torn apart by colonialism and capitalism, which have promoted individualism and destroyed many traditional family groups. When the AIDS pandemic came about, Mathilde explained, people began to grow closer and have created groups that are re-creating what has been lost.

One example is home-based care groups. Home- based caregivers demonstrate heart felt motivation to help those dear to them cope with HIV/AIDS. Drawn by need, they have reached out to wider communities as well. They have also aided people living with HIV to form support groups and have begun supporting orphans through direct resource provision, training them to care for themselves, and providing them with equipment (such as sewing machines) to turn that training into a source of livelihood. Mathilde also brought up the Home-Based Care Alliance, which has been piloted by GROOTS Kenya and will now be launched by UCOBAC in Uganda. This initiative has helped grassroots women to raise the visibility of their work and to take advantage of many more opportunities presented to them. “It is not good for HIV/AIDS to have come, but in many ways it has improved our lives. When we are fragmented we cannot do much, but together we will push together and be much more effective.”

Jenipher from Kitui, a dry region of Kenya, then explained the ways that home-based caregivers are improving resource allocation at the local level. Beyond starting income-generating activities to support their caregiving work, they have begun to lobby for support for orphans and people living with HIV from the wider community, thereby getting food, clothes and improved shelter for the neediest. Grassroots women have also been lobbying for (and gaining) seats on various community development committees, including bursary funds (to send orphans to school), community development funds and constituency AIDS control councils. Home-based caregivers are using their intimate knowledge of their communities to ensure that resources flowing through these channels are going to those most in need. “We knew that the government had money, but what would make them appreciate the work we were doing? By coming together, and with our capacity built, we are now sitting on committees on the strength of our work, not by begging. The [development fund committees] are also benefiting. They have been accused of corruption, but grassroots women are now there to watch over what they do.”

“Give me my land; I don’t want to be bothered on the road.” –Western Kenyan song

Violet then shared how the AIDS pandemic has spurred grassroots women and communities to take up the issue of women’s land, housing and property rights. Caregivers coming together at national meetings noticed that they were all finding cases of women having to run away from their land when their husbands or parents died of AIDS. Many of those women went to the slums, and with no other way to survive, resorted to prostitution.

Using a community-led mapping process, the factors identified by grassroots women were a lack of documents such as title deeds or death certificates; lack of knowledge about their rights; and lack of effectiveness of the structures put in place. Grassroots women reacted by increasing women’s awareness of their rights, examining their culture (and through doing so discovering from traditional opinion leaders that women had the right to inherit land), forming support groups which contribute money to support women to go through legal proceedings; and re-building homes for women who have been dispossessed. They have also had dialogues and formed partnerships with chiefs to get women’s property returned. Women now buy property in their own name. “The community knows: if you disinherit a woman, we are watching and will deal with it as a violation of human rights.” Violet ended by recommending that “you support us to strengthen these initiatives.”

Esther wrapped up by asking, “Who would have thought before that grassroots women could sit on committees where money decisions are made? Or influence where governments put hospitals? We have all suffered so much do to HIV/AIDS. We have lost our children, our homes, our parents and our spouses. But we can still now talk about AIDS as an opportunity.”