A Grandmother’s Tribe

When the Grandmothers speak the earth will be healed – Hopi Prophecy. A Grandmother’s Tribe captures the lives of two Kenyan grandmothers who have stepped into the void after the loss of their own children to raise their young grandchildren.

Through an “unobstructed lens” the film gives an insight into their world of survival in village and urban life as they prepare for Christmas in Africa. It is estimated that 63% of HIV-infected individuals in the world (approximately 25 of 40 million) live in the sub-Sahara region of Africa. These numbers have created an unprecedented 13 million orphans.

These two incredible women represent thousands of their kind who, in this late stage of life, are literally starting over again to raise orphaned children – feeding, educating and caring for the “sickly” ones. The challenge is enormous as they deal with the grief of their own losses and poor health in order to feed, educate and care for an ever-growing number of orphaned children.

They struggle on a daily basis to come to terms with a disease they do not understand — an unnamed disease whose stigma isolates them further from the communities they depend on to survive.