• Almost 11% of all South African's over 2 years of age have HIV/AIDS
• At least 95% of those with HIV/AIDS are from previously disadvantaged backgrounds
• HIV/AIDS prevalence in females is 62% higher than in males

The South African National HIV Survey, 2005

South Africa stands to lose too many mothers!

It is clear from these figures - just a few of many similar frightening statistics - that the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa is widespread and vast numbers of people are suffering as a result. This is of course no surprise as local and international media have flooded their audiences with stories of the aids crisis from South Africa, and indeed from across the globe. Scratching below the surface of the direct suffering of those that continue to be overcome by this disease, we find a lot of people on the edges whose basic survival, already threatened by educational shortfalls and poverty, is made all that much harder to cling to.

This refers of course to the young children of South Africa! Children that are being left without homes, without families, without education or basic care, for as their parents increasingly succumb to HIV/AIDS the lights on their respective futures begin to fade.