Dr Nigel Hoffman and Dr Clare Hoffman are a husband and wife team who've worked at Rietvlei Hospital in the Eastern Cape for the past 14 years. However, as the number of patients with HIV/AIDS has increased, so their "cure rate" of patients has decreased. A demoralising situation for doctors who wish to heal their patients. In a context of grinding poverty and the absence of anti-retroviral drugs, all they can do is treat the illnesses they see and offer palliative care. More recently, the option of Nevirapine for pregnant woman has become available, but because of the need to have an AIDS test and the stigma related to the virus, woman are reluctant to access the programme.

The impact of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe has forced communities to take a sober look at certain cultural practices that were previously accepted without question. Zimbabwe, which shares an AIDS profile similar to South Africa's with around one in four adults HIV positive, has had to revise its life expectancy downwards from 65 to 43 years because of the disease. Sue Valentine spoke to Zimbabwean AIDS worker Caroline Maposhere about how certain cultural practices are changing because of the epidemic.

The AIDS organisation, Wola Nani has contracted a group of actors to run workshops to empower people with HIV in their daily relationships and interactions. However, this is not just another role play by actors in front of an audience. Using the Boal Forum Theatre technique, the actors encourage the audience to take part in the play and to change the way in which the drama is played out. The idea is to build people's confidence and to take charge of the situations in which they find themselves. Sue Valentine spent a day with the Cape Heart Theatre company.