Ghost Generation

The generation of south-east Africans lost to HIV/AIDS.

In a fascinating Guardian article, Jemma Neville explored the rise in abuse and violence toward older women in areas of Mozambique and Tanzania:

The standing of older people in the community, largely based on age and wisdom, is being eroded as urbanisation and migration have led to the abuse and neglect of older people by their relatives.

Neville suggests that one of the reasons for this rise in persecution is that some older women are “regarded with suspicion for having outlived many of their own children - the so-called ghost generation of HIV/AIDS. Unicef estimates that 14 percent of all children in Tanzania are orphans, of whom 64 percent are cared for by grandparents.”