Gogo Tara and her children

"A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling." Psalm 68:5

Gogo means grandmother and what an important person she is in the lives of many parentless children. Having raised their own children, many gogos are now raising their children's children due to abandonment or the death of their parents.

Last weekend, I and a teammate went to stay with Gogo Tara high in the mountains of a beautiful rural area of South Africa. Gogo Tara is a widow who raises four of her grandchildren, three from her daughter and one from her son who is dying of cancer. Gogo Tara nursed her eldest son, who is in his forties, at home for 12 months before he was moved to a hospital in Pretoria some five to six hours drive away. Her son needs so much care that Gogo Tara lives with him at the hospital and comes home most weekends to check on the children. She has brought a young woman, Naomi, with a two year old girl to stay and work at the house to mind the children. When she returns home she goes to collect the meagre pension they all survive on and buys provisions for the children and her son in hospital. Then she sets to work in the house cooking, cleaning and washing to get the house ready for another week. After this she will tend her quarter acre garden she has planted to grow corn and pumpkin for the family. Gogo Tara is retired teacher but her life is not slowing down, I can only admire her commitment to her children and grandchildren that demonstrates how strong mother love can be.

Goga Tara's eldest grandchild is Lisa, who is 15 with excellent English that she has learnt at school. She is clever and hoping to study accountancy in the future. Simon is 12 and adventurous and when some of our team and village children explored the nearby river and found crabs, he was the first to bravely catch them when the other children could only scream. He was also quick to build a fire outside to boil water when it was suggested we cook them. You should have seen all these amazed little faces when the crabs had boiled the pot was opened and the brown mud crabs had turned bright orange! By then most were eager to try and taste crab for the first time. Philip is nine and was excited to show me his English skills by writing all the words he knew in my notebook. Stephen, is eight and enjoyed the tennis ball we brought and wanted to play catch all day. Naomi's little girl, Sally, slowly gained trust and played with us by the end of our stay.

Gogo Tara gave us her best room, with her best bed and thoroughly looked after us. We tried to work with her, Naomi and the children in their chores to appreciate the amount of work daily life takes. Clothes washing took hours and was done outside in two large wash basins. The wash cycle was Simon standing in the basin and kneading the dirty clothes with his feet. Water needs to be hauled from large water tanks that get filled by a water tanker that visits the village every few weeks. 25 litre containers are filled and then wheel barrowed back to the house down an extremely bumpy track. We lost control of the wheelbarrow many times but Naomi can carry a container home steadily on her head. Wood for the stove needs to be dragged from the forest and then chopped at home. Again, village women can balance these logs on their heads with no hands for the long walk home. All this work is hard enough but in this high mountainous region the winter's are bitterly cold, imagine washing clothes with your bare feet in icy water!

Hands at Work has a Carepoint in the village where children such as Lisa, Simon, Philip and Stephen can come and have a meal after school. The Careworkers also build relationship with the family and offer support and followup for their needs. How important it is that families like this can feel that they are not alone trying to survive and that there is help when things go wrong. How can anyone pray and say God help you if there are no feet on the ground and hands to help. God's love needs his people to make it real.

Please pray for ...

• Gogo Tara to remain in good health and have the strength to keep caring for her family. She is 65 years old and has bad knees and back, which is probably the result of all these arduous years of household chores. You can appreciate that the family is very vulnerable if she can no longer fulfil her caring role.

• Lisa, Simon, Philip and Stephen to do well and finish their schooling.

• Gogo Tara's son who is seriously, if not terminally, ill with bone cancer.

• For the Careworkers of this region/service centre to be full of grace, strength and wisdom to continue their important work caring for children and families.

The names of people have been changed.

Lisa, Ellie, Naomi with her daughter Sally, Gogo Tara, Philip, Simon, Stephen, Gogo's second son who takes her to the hospital to stay with her eldest son.