Publication in Knack on 25th of November 2009 on AIDS Orphans in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa.

In a tiny hut on a deserted hill near Manguzi, Busi (20) is waking up. Her parents and her sister passed away, she has been the head of the family for more than three years now. She was left behind with two younger siblings, the orphan child of her older sister and two children of yet another sister that has left for a better life in Mozambique. After years of extreme poverty, she now found a boyfriend who slips her some money now and then. Three nights of unprotected sex a week is what she is forced to give in return, knowing he sees other women as well. Since then her family can go to school. It’s a sacrifice she makes to give them a better chance in life.
Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa, 2009. HIV infection numbers are amongst the highest worldwide. This is a documentary on a life in a community where traditional family care has fallen apart. In a region with very little industrialization, people are forced to work hundreds of kilometers away from home. Quite often they find a new life in the city and never return. If they do come home, they bring HIV. The virus has made an already weak society even weaker. Children are growing up fast, they are left with ill parents, ageing grandparents or younger siblings. Grandparents foster the babies, but are too old to prepare them for nowadays society. A new kind of family has established itself. Child headed households are beginning to be common.