Pricilla Jonas: I said, my children, you know what? I’ve got HIV.

One day I will die and leave you, my children.

So you must be brave and look after yourselves, and look after me.

Florence Alfonso: My husband died one year ago.

He died with HIV. And it is the same HIV, which my husband died with, I am suffering from. I’m having HIV in my body.

Sometimes I think of my child. If I die, where is he going? Who is going to keep him?

If I saw people walking or even chatting, I think they are laughing at me because I have got HIV in my body.

Sometimes I become speechless to them.

Just staying in my house alone without anyone to chat with me.

I think of my baby and my young sisters. That if I die who is going to keep them?

Otilia Tasikani: My name is Otillia Tasikani.

They told me that you are HIV-positive.

It came as a shock to me because at that time I knew that I was going to die.

And I thought that I was going to leave my kids as orphans.

I told the doctor that I was positive, and he advised me to take my child for an HIV test.

The results came out positive.

And it pains me quite a lot when he’s not feeling well because I’m always blaming myself. Why did I have that child when I knew that I’m positive?

Man With Baby: I only come to discover that my daughter is HIV-infected about two months ago.

I love my children so much.

The biggest problem I have got now, I don’t have enough money to buy the drugs for her.

Eston Kansinjiro: So if we fall sick, it is difficult for us to work in our fields.

We cannot harvest enough food to eat.

So we are living with hunger.

And we have found it difficult to feed our children.

There are people living below poverty.

We cannot spend a dollar a day for us to survive. We don’t have.

Samantha: I cry at times because in life nobody can just give you money like a man.

Prostitution, I’m just doing it for the difficult life I’m having right now.

It is very painful.

Even if I want to eat, I have to look for man.

Even if I want soap to wash, I have to look for man.

Even if I want to buy clothes, I have to look for man.

Many times I’m saying, God maybe is not there.

Forget Gutuza: My name is Forget Gutuza.

I like to work in my community.

We go door to door visiting HIV patients.

I‘m very proud of this.

I don’t get paid, but I know that God will pay me one day, so I am working for God.

Sister Ivy: It gives me joy to be able to care for somebody who otherwise wouldn’t be cared for.

To bring them somewhere where they can be cared for with dignity and with respect.

And it’s very sad to see most of these children dying.

But there is nothing we can do to prevent them from dying.

We just make sure that they enjoy their lives as much as they can and make them feel that even if they’re orphans or even if there is no one to give them support and care and love, we are here to do that for them.

Paddington Mazarura: My name is Paddington Mazarura.

Me and my wife discovered that we are HIV-positive.

It has been a difficult time.

This thing came at a time when I didn’t expect it, in my prime time when I was starting to climb up the ladder in the corporate world.

It just sort of robbed me of everything, all my future.

I became seriously ill.

We were faced with huge medical bills.

That left my wife, at that time she was still teaching, she was the only one who had to fend for the family.

Fortune Mazarura: My name is Fortune Mazarura.

I have been married for the past 20 years and I’m HIV-positive.

As a teacher, it was very difficult discovering that you are HIV-positive. It was difficult to tell any other person about the issue.

So I decided, let me do something about it.

I had to disclose my status to the whole school.

Everybody cried, but I didn’t cry. I wanted their encouragement, their support, and I wanted them to see me the way I am. I am just trying to make sure that other people know that HIV is not the end of the world.

They can actually live with HIV for a very long time.

Paddington Mazarura: There is need for awareness because AIDS does not know color or creed. It doesn’t care whether you are educated or not.

We are not talking about numbers only here, but we are talking of people, people whose contribution would make a difference in the development of the country.

HIV and AIDS has decimated so many, many families. They have no access to treatment because there is a shortage of drugs.

It is a disease that one can survive with, but there is a need for medication. There is need for education.

So what we need to do as people of this world is to unite so that we can fight HIV and AIDS together.

I wish, and it is my hope, that one day some people will hear us and come to our aid.