May 2, Cape Town
The OT Abroad group had a joyful and song-filled visit to GAPA, which was started in 2001 by 10 grandmothers and an occupational therapist to offer workshops and support groups to grandmothers who are affected by HIV/AIDS.
After the visit from the OT Abroad team, the grandmothers of GAPA posted this on their Facebook page:
“We cannot remember any group of visitors ever singing FOR the grannies… But, on 2 May 2023, new history was written. Visitors from the OT program of the University of Alabama Birmingham (USA) sang what is often referred to as “The Black National Anthem,” titled ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing.’ It was a hymn written as a poem by NAACP leader James Weldon Johnson in 1900. ENKOSI [thank you] dear sisters and brothers from UAB.”
Click here to listen to the song.
South Africa has one of the world’s highest rates of HIV infection in adults and children, and GAPA’s goal is to uplift “grandmothers affected by the epidemic in their communities and create a healthy, safe and happy environment for them.”
