Here at the Hatcliff Extension Community Creche on the outskirts of Harare there is no doubting the enormity of Zimbabwe's HIV/AIDS crisis. NUN: They’re sort of double orphans, what we call double orphans, either both parents have died and they are being looked after by grandma but grandma is not able to look after them. REPORTER: Did their parents pass away from HIV? NUN: Most of them. The sisters here help care for over 200 children who come here every day from the nearby shanty town. DR NORMAN GILLESPIE, CHIEF EXECUTIVE UNICEF AUSTRALIA: There is a huge residue here in Zimbabwe from an epidemic of HIV AIDS and a large number of adults leaving the orphans some 1.5 million orphans here. You see grandmothers with maybe caring for as many as 20 children. There was a total wipe-out and it is so very sad. 25% of all children in Zimbabwe are orphans - that is a staggering statistic. So that in itself produces many challenges. Bad as it is, the situation could have been worse for these children but they are HIV-free. CHILDREN SING: I need exercise, above all I need love. For eight-year-old Busi the future is more uncertain. Busi lives in Harare with her father. They want their identity protected. BUSI (Translation): I was raped by a man in Mazowe while my mum was away. My mum told me to keep quite or I would be beaten by the police. Terrified that the police would take her away, Busi kept quiet. Until she got sick and her mother was forced to take her to hospital. BUSI’S FATHER (Translation): That’s when she left the child with me and went back to Mazowe. On the day she left the child, just before I went to the hospital, the mistake she made was leaving the police report. What Busi's father found in the report was shocking. Busi had been infected with a number of sexually transmitted diseases and most frightening of all, HIV. BUSI’S FATHER (Translation): I never dreamed I would be in a situation like this. It really affected me. Of course, I am getting help with the child’s treatment but with regards to the perpetrator it seems that the authorities are doing nothing. If you get better tomorrow or next week, what would you like to do first? BUSI (Translation): Go to school. For now though, Busi must make regular visits to an HIV clinic and get used to the daily drug regime that will keep her alive. More than 13% of Zimbabwe's population is living HIV - 140,000 of them children. LOYCE (Translation): Knock, knock. IGNATIUS (Translation): Come in. 20-year-old Loyce is a social worker making her weekly visit to Ignatius and Tate who are both HIV Positive. LOYCE (Translation): So, did you take your tablets today? Ignatius, where is your tablet box? IGNATIUS (Translation): It isn’t packed. LOYCE (Translation): Not packed? Can you go and get it? It is vital that that the boys are diligent about taking their medication. If they are not, the amount of HIV in their blood could increase and they risk becoming resistant to life-saving anti-retro viral drugs. LOYCE (Translation): How are you going to know you have taken your pills correctly if you aren’t using the tablet box? Ignatius, how do we know? IGNATIUS (Translation): I don’t know. LOYCE (Translation): Tate, how long did the doctor say you need to take them for? TATE (Translation): I have forgotten. LOYCE (Translation): You have forgotten? What are they for? What happens if you take them? TATE (Translation): I won’t get sick too much. LOYCE (Translation): You won’t get sick too much? Good. High five! Good boy. Loyce knows only too well how hard it can be for children living with HIV. LOYCE (Translation): So it’s okay. Give me five…. Make it ten. She was told she had the disease when she was only 13-years-old. LOYCE: By that time I only knew that people talked of HIV kills and if you got HIV you die so just the thought that I had in mind and I cried so much and my aunty tried to console me. Loyce watched AIDS decimate her family. LOYCE: My parents, they both passed away and a week after my mother passed away that’s when my other younger brother passed away.. REPORTER: How did you feel towards your father? LOYCE: I felt very angry because he had three wives and didn't he know that he would obviously get HIV while having those three wives so it made me very angry that he was very, what can I say, cruel to have three wives at the same time. And it really pains me. Despite her work helping others in need, Loyce is still stigmatised by her own family. LOYCE: Sometimes they told me not to touch their things, like their brooms, their dishes, the tins that we use to pour water in because water is a problem, so sometimes it is very difficult for me. Loyce even attempted to take her own life by overdosing on antiretroviral drugs meant to keep her alive. LOYCE: I took half the bottle then I said "Who should I tell?" and a texted the aunties from Africaid’s Zvandiri Program that I took some anti-retro viral drugs, half the bottle and they said "Where are you?" and they came where I was and they took me to the hospital. And none of my family came. When the people that you are living with don't have the information it is very difficult for them to understand some of the emotional situation that you go through and that comes into your mind so it is very difficult for that. NURSE: How are you feeling? LOYCE: I’m fine a little bit. I had tonsils. NURSE: Okay, when did you get tonsils? LOYCE: I had them on …Friday last week. NURSE: Would you like the open your mouth. Despite the ravages of the HIV/AIDS epidemic the future for young people like Loyce is looking a little better. Dr Norman Gillespie is Chief Executive of UNICEF Australia. DR NORMAN GILLESPIE: You seem to be understanding this very well. They are deeply involved in Zimbabwe, providing everything from school textbooks to water treatment plants and HIV/AIDS support programs. DR NORMAN GILLESPIE: Something very important has happened - this country has had relative stability now for two and a half years through a unity Government. It is fragile but it is miraculously actually working in some ways. And that inclusive Government means the moderates are starting to get more of a stance here and making these social changes that are so necessary to get the country out of complete collapse. The figures are declining. HIV is on the decline because of early intervention and the plentiful supply of drugs. This group ever community nurses are also funded by UNICEF. Their job is to educate rural women about preventing the transmission of HIV from mother to child. DR NORMAN GILLESPIE: We have begun by using the local health workers and identifying pregnant women and getting them into clinics to be tested, when they are seen to be positive, then apply the drugs, three courses of drugs plus a clean birth which means the baby will be born without AIDS and we are now seeing for the first time a generation of newborns free of AIDS. Today nurse Natsayi Bote visits this HIV Positive woman and her four children. The youngest Elizabeth is only three months olds. What makes this baby different from her siblings is that thanks to anti-retro viral drugs she is HIV-free. NATSAYI BOTE (Translation): Keep on giving the child her medication. Also, you must go for the check-up every time it is due. Elizah will be fine. Thank you. LOYCE: How is your uncle? Back in Harare, Loyce is picking up her medication from the HIV clinic. MAN: How are you Loyce? LOYCE: I am fine. Yes. MAN: Come to collect your meds? Every single person in Zimbabwe has been affected by HIV/AIDS in some way. But for now, for Loyce, medication and education are saving her life. LOYCE: Thank you. MAN: Have a good day. LOYCE: Goodbye. MAN: Goodbye Loyce! LOYCE: I got to join a support group and I saw my other peers who were of my age talking about different issues on HIV and AIDS - how to accept our status, how to live positively and I started to realise on that yeah, maybe I have a future ahead of me. Yes, I do hope to have a family and a wedding as well, a real big wedding. Loyce tells me she plans to finish school and study social work. Check out more about that story and see pictures from my trip on the web site.