'€œYou need to come. We are drowning in orphans,'€ read the e-mail to Health-e News Service from Sally Duigan, head of the Tzaneen Diocese'€™s response to HIV/AIDS for many years.

Rural schools are bearing the brunt of the AIDS epidemic as orphan numbers swell, few families can pay school fees and children increasingly rely on the school feeding scheme as their sole meal

The middle-aged woman struts down the dusty road, ducks beneath a mango tree and weaves her way through colourful playground equipment.A denim skirt flutters around her ankles, the ever present mountains from which she often draws spiritual strength, form a dramatic backdrop to the setting for Holy Family Care Centre at Ofcolaco.

A wide grin peeks out from under the woman'€™s floppy, red sunhat as Jeaneth Shirindzi puts her arm around the shy woman'€™s neck and draws her closer. '€œThis is one of my patients who are on ARVs,'€ Shirindzi proclaims proudly, herself sporting a less flashy navy-blue sunhat.