Cape Town-based photographer, Eric Miller, has successfully raised funding through the micro fundraising site, Kickstarter.com to continue a project focusing on a group of inspirational grandmothers in the Cape Town township of Khayelitsha.
Eric writes about his project:
At a time of their life when they had hoped to slow down and be taken care of by their children, these women find themselves faced with becoming primary caregivers again, this time to their orphaned grand and great grandchildren.
Faced with picking up the pieces left in the wake of the Aids pandemic, these women have found support and solidarity, as well as practical skills, in an organisation they formed called GAPA, Grandmothers Against Poverty and Aids.
Together with award winning writer Joanne Smetherham, we have been following and engaging with some of these extraordinary women since last year, documenting their lives, their challenges, and their life stories.
We are now at a stage of creating a photo exhibition, and then a book, focusing on this group of community elders.
We have also been collaborating with Prof Jennifer Fish, of the Gender Studies Department at Old Dominion University in Virginia, USA. She and her students are doing academic research into the group of grandmothers, and are conducting fundraising on our behalf. We are currently also sharing research and interview material towards both their research and the book publication.
Eric set up a fundraising effort via the website Kickstarter.com, on this link which successfully raised the USD7,000 needed to progress with the project.
We are looking forward to the outcome of the project: