Volunteers help carry HIV/AIDS burden

Ordinary people are doing extraordinary things for the battle against HIV/AIDS in Southern Africa, one of the world's regions hardest hit by the pandemic.

One such individual, is Winnie Mabaso, a retired nurse, who's uses her spare time as a community volunteer in the township of Finetown outside Johannesburg, South Africa.

Since moving to the township in 1999, Mabaso opened a nursery school in her backyard; enlisted 50 new volunteers and feeds 1,700 orphans and vulnerable children.

Richard Delate, the spokesperson for UNAIDS in Southern Africa, welcomed the involvement of community volunteers, especially as "the burden of the epidemic deepens, [and] the burden of care is shifts to the community."

However, the grassroots helpers, who are usually women, often find themselves running low on the resources needed to sustain their initiatives, the Christian Science Monitor reported.

This item is delivered to the English Service of the United Nations' Humanitarian Information Service but, may not necessarily reflect the views of the UN.