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.

Three teachers from different schools that are miles apart in rural Tzaneen share one thing in common: having to deal with growing numbers of learners who have no parents.

In what was once a productive farming area of Calais, a deep rural village of Tzaneen in Limpopo, a Catholic missionary property abandoned for over a decade is now home to over 80 orphaned and sick children.

The National Strategic Plan (NSP) target to place another 120 000 adults and 70 000 children on antiretrovirals by the end of the year was not simply a government matter, Health department Director-General Thami Mseleku told journalists yesterday.

For four days of the week, Sister Corona, a Catholic nun, travels the villages of Modjadjiskloof district, outside Tzaneen in Limpopo, to minister to the needs of the sick. We followed her on one of her trips to provide home-based care.