Grandmothers of Generosity
Celebrating & documenting the stories of grandmothers' generosity and leadership — the quiet power that moves communities forward across Africa and beyond.
African countries in the storytelling frame
Making invisible leadership visible to the world.
Whatever you call her —
she held things together.
Gogo, Nana, Shosho, Jajja, Iya Agba, Bebe, Mamie, Avó — our grandmothers generously offer strength, love, care, and a quiet power that moves us forward. They play vital roles in our lives and communities, weaving our social fabric well beyond household walls.
With their wisdom, experience, generosity, and relationships, our grandmothers are our trusted advisors, decision-makers, and organisers — they guide us and remind us of what matters.
Recognise & Celebrate
The often-unseen generosity and leadership of grandmothers — in markets, homes, councils, and communities across Africa.
Document Diverse Stories
Show how grandmothers' care for their families shapes community life, and how that care has always been a form of public leadership.
Build a Public Archive
A living digital record that future generations can learn from and be inspired by — long after July 2026.
A storytelling chain anyone can join in 3 simple steps.
Stories can be about any grandmother figure in your community, not just your own. Submissions are welcome in any language or format — text, images, audio, or video.
Share
Post a short story, voice note, photo with caption, or a short video (up to 2 minutes) about a grandmother who has positively shaped community life.
Post on LinkedIn, X (Twitter), Instagram, or FacebookTag
Include #GoGrandma and tag the campaign accounts so your story can be found, celebrated, and added to the growing public archive.
@givingtuesdayaf & @CivSourceAfricaNominate
Tag 2–4 people and invite them to share their own story about a grandmother in their community. Keep the chain moving forward.
"I invite @Name, @Name, and @Name to share a story."Grandmotherhood is not a private story. It is a public force.
The campaign organises grandmother influence across four dimensions so visitors can see care, memory, leadership, and economic labour as civic infrastructure — not as domestic footnotes.
Economics
Grandmothers are informal economic architects — market women, savings-circle anchors, household budget keepers, and practical builders of intergenerational resilience.
Politics & Public Leadership
They are moral authorities, quiet diplomats, trusted mediators, and community leaders whose influence shapes civic life long before institutions ever recognise it.
Storytelling & Memory
Grandmothers carry language, story, song, proverb, family history, and cultural continuity. They are the living archive from which future generations draw meaning.
Faith & Values
They preserve the rituals, ethics, spiritual practices, and forms of care that hold communities together and guide future generations through uncertainty.
Public figures who show global leadership and grandmotherhood belong in the same frame.
NONgozi Okonjo-Iweala
Director-General, WTOA grandmother whose public leadership reflects patience, negotiation discipline, and a long-view approach to systems change.
Archive Entry →
ESEllen Johnson Sirleaf
Former President, LiberiaHer story places grandmotherhood and statecraft in the same frame — as deeply related forms of stewardship.
Archive Entry →
GMGraça Machel
Humanitarian & Global AdvocateHer work connects family care and the moral architecture of institutions — showing grandmother-scale values build world-scale structures.
Archive Entry →
WMWangari Maathai
Founder, Green Belt MovementHer story expands grandmotherhood into environmental care and public courage — planting trees as cultural legacy.
Archive Entry →Not sure where to begin?
These questions will help you find and tell your grandmother's story — large or small, recent or long ago, local or far-reaching.
Can you recall a time when your grandmother took action on a community issue? What did she do and what changed as a result?
How did others respond to her actions? Did her influence extend beyond your immediate family?
Did her actions influence attitudes, decisions, or community structures in ways that are still visible today?
What values or principles did she demonstrate that still guide you — or those around you — today?
A five-month journey from launch to archive.
Campaign Launch
International Women's Day. Campaign goes live across all channels with the first wave of stories and the nomination chain activated.
Collecting & Amplifying Stories
Open storytelling chain running on social media, WhatsApp, and direct submission. Stories welcome in any language or format.
Launch Podcast Series
Long-form audio stories from grandmothers and those who know them best — in their own voices, in multiple languages.
Release Digital Archive
All stories curated and published as a permanent public record — for communities, educators, and the generations that come after us.
Her story will not
disappear.
Every submission becomes part of a public digital archive available long after the campaign ends.
Get notified when the library opens
One email when the archive launches. No noise.
Submit her story
Featured voices showing how the chain is already growing.
“She ran a savings circle for women in our neighbourhood for years. Nobody called it economic leadership, but that is exactly what it was.”Adenike A.Economics · Savings Circle · Lagos
“I thought I was just raising children and telling stories. I did not know I was also preserving a people.”Aminata D.Storytelling · Memory · Dakar
“We filmed her in the market and suddenly everybody saw it — she was a banker, negotiator, mediator, and archive all at once.”Kwame K.Public Life · Documentary · Accra
Start a
nomination chain.
Copy the message, send it to three people, invite them to name their grandmother and pass it on. Every chain adds to the archive.