Grandmothers save the day.

Today our Marist team who work with people who are HIV+ or who have full-blown AIDS spent our time visiting the mountainous areas around Ranong. Here ten patients have been referred to us by the local Thai government health clinics. We try to assist them in any way we can. We try to bring them some food, to transport them to the hospitals when they have an appointment and to follow up on their medication.

Unlike our work in the township of Ranong where almost all our patients are from Burma/Myanmar, the patients in the mountains around Ranong are almost all Thai. After all, they are referred to us by the Thai government clinics.

What struck us very much yesterday was the crucial role played by grand-parents, especially grandmothers.

Many of the people referred to us are children whose parents have already died of the dreaded HIV virus. Once both parents have died the children are left alone in the world. Sometimes they may be HIV+ themselves, sometimes they are free of the virus but caught without anyone to care for them.

Grandparents so often fill in as care-givers. Yesterday we met with several grand-parents who have taken over full responsibility for their grand-children. The impression they give is that they have had the responsibility thrust on them. They have already suffered the death of one of their children – the parent of the grandchild – and now they want to rest. But late in their lives have the busy life of a parent once again. They also carry the added stigma of having grieved the death of a child who has died of a disease that is feared and despised.

Still, these grandparents have taken on the challenge and continue to struggle to make ends meet and provide the best opportunities they can to their orphaned grand-children.