With so many dying so young from AIDS the older generation in South Africa has been left traumatised. At GAPA (Grandmothers Against Poverty and AIDS) they come together to console each other. Many have lost 3 or 4 children to the disease and live in extreme poverty. But as Vivienne Budaza of the group points out, "during the 4 or 5 hours at GAPA, you forget your problems and stress."

For many children with AIDS the Baphumalele orphanage is their saviour from a premature death. "In Khayelitsha, children are abandoned almost daily. Some have internal injuries, others bruises. Some have been choked", Rosie Mashale, founder of the orphanage, tells us. "I always think about how those children would be dead if they didn't have a place to go." But here they receive the love and attention they deserve and the anti-retroviral medication they need to live a more normal life.

One of the most important and difficult tasks in the struggle against AIDS is the requisite provision of care and education. HOPE is an organization that seeks to offer sufferers the balanced diet needed to help the anti-retroviral treatment, gives out free medication and educates people about the disease. It fills an invaluable gap left by the government, whose lack of outreach has been costly. "It is important that Norma takes care of people with HIV and TB, because there is nobody else", one sufferer tells us.

What all of these different groups have to contest with is the South African government's handling of the AIDS crisis. The AIDS statistics for South Africa are truly shocking. In some areas of the country every fifth person is infected with HIV, and some 350,000 South Africans die of the disease every year. TAC (Treatment Action Plan) even sued Thabo Mbeki's government in an attempt to overturn its destructive approach to the epidemic.

This insightful documentary provides many important lessons about the future of South Africa's struggle with the disease. Whilst ground-level organisations help the next generation through educational campaigns and local support, if the epidemic is to be tackled it will require a vigorous intervention by the South African government, which it is currently desperately lacking.

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