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Radar
Great Granny Revolution: Rose Letwaba
Words Michelle Loewenstein
 If you walk around the Sparrow Ministries with Deputy CEO Rose Letwaba, you can’t help but be left bowled over by her warmth. She seems to know every single child by name, despite the fact that the centre cares for more than 200 children. She greets them fondly as they approach, and they seem equally excited to see her.
“See this one? He’s my boyfriend!” she jokes as a chubby little boy toddles up to her for a hug. Letwaba’s bubbly personality fills her small office as she explains how she started the Granny Gogo Group.
Letwaba is one of those people that create their own fate. She was involved with the Alex Aids Orphan Project, which is now run by her sister, Diana Teffo (profiled in the June 2008 edition of Sandton).
“I was working with children with mental health problems,” she recalls, “and I noticed an increase in the number of children coming to us who were suffering from depression. And then I realised that this was a complication of bereavement – most of their problems resulted from having parents who were terminally ill. We started engaging with their grandmothers, who had taken on the role of raising these children.
One day I saw the grannies sitting under a tree and I realised that they had also lost children. I spoke with them, and in 2001 a professor from a Montreal children’s hospital came here, and his wife and I started the Granny Gogo Group in Alex.”
This gave rise to a venture run in conjunction with the Wakefield Grannies in Canada. “I was sent off on a holiday to Montreal. The hospital was celebrating its 100th birthday and asked me if I would present my work to them. I bumped into a woman in a supermarket there who was also a nurse. She immediately knew who I was – as there were so few black people in town,” she recalls with another infectious laugh. Letwaba gave a talk at the woman’s church. Her words inspired the Wakefield Grannies to reach out to the Alex gogos, writing them letters and organising fund-raising events for the women who lived halfway across the world from them. Their association led to the making of a documentary, called The Great Granny Revolution, about the relationship between the Alexandra-based South African gogos and their North American counterparts.
Letwaba now spends one day a week in Alex and the rest of her time at Sparrow. The organisation is a hospice that also cares for children infected with or affected by HIV/Aids. Its purpose is to raise the children in a loving environment while providing proper care for those who are ill. “It’s very difficult. There are so many challenges!” Letwaba says. “We’re working in an environment where people have life-threatening diseases. We often admit people who are not in a good condition. Another challenge is the economic situation. We rely on funding from companies, and if they’re not making money they can’t make donations.”
In addition to caring for children of the community, Letwaba has two children of her own. “That’s another one of my departments!” she laughs. “I have two boys – one is a toddler and one is a teenager. There’s a huge age gap!” When she can, Letwaba goes to gym to unwind. She also enjoys reading and listening to music. She describes herself as ‘an active person’ (an understatement). “People who see me here writing reports can tell by my face that I am definitely now stuck in the office!” she giggles.
Above all, Letwaba is philosophical about life. “I once told my sister, ‘You will never become rich working for the community. But you will sleep so well at night!’” Her laughter once again fills the room.
Details: www.thegrannies.org
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Rose Letwaba
Posted on: 01/04/2009
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