Contributors

Lisa Schreiber: The GRANDMOTHER Project

Lisa is on the advisory board for the Grandmothers' Project and is very passionate about devoting her time, energy and expertise in this non-profit organization.

The Grandmother Project is a non-profit, non-governmental organization (NGO) that was officially recognized in the U.S. in 2004 and in Italy in 2007. GMP was established by Judi Aubel with support from a group of about twenty people, both from industrialized and developing countries, who are committed to promoting the health and development of poor communities in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The approaches being promoted by GMP are based on work that was started in 1997, prior to the creation of the organization, and when Aubel was working for different NGOs to develop the grandmother-inclusive strategies. ( Grandmother-inclusive strategies are those that explicitly and actively involve grandmothers as active resource persons for their communities.)

Starting in 1997 in Laos, later in central Senegal and Mali, and more recently in Uzbekistan, Albania and southern Senegal, experiences involving senior women in community efforts to improve the health and well-being of women and children have consistently demonstrated the relevance of including them in these efforts. Each of the project experiences (described below) dealt with different issues related to women and children's health and well-being. But the common element in each of them was that grandmothers were given a central role, unlike many programs that exclude them.

Gaining support for grandmother-inclusive health promotion strategies has been a gradual process given the negative biases against grandmothers on the part of many development organizations.

For more information visit: www.GrandmotherProject.org