As thousands of slum-dwellers in the town of Hyderabad rise to begin a new day, Kavitha rises early as well. She immediately starts her chores: sweeping the area outside her family's shack, folding blankets, and preparing breakfast over an open flame.

Kavitha's mother has AIDS. Thin and frail, she finds herself too sick to do the things most mothers do. A mason worker, Kavitha's father died of AIDS in 1999, leaving a wife and three children.

At 17, Kavitha has the sweet self-conscious manners of a girl, but the brave enduring ways of a woman. Forced to drop out of school, she works three jobs, manages the house and attends parent-teacher interviews in her mother's place. Kavitha's sole purpose is to support her 12-year-old sister and eight-year-old brother until they reach adulthood. Asked what she wants to do with her life, she replies, "I don't know what will happen to me."

Across India, hundreds of thousands of children whose parents are infected with HIV face the same uncertain future. More than 5.7 million people in this country are infected with the virus that causes AIDS. As of 2001, it was estimated that 560,000 children in India have lost one or both parents to the disease.1 Those children with no relatives are forced to fend for themselves.

As the threat of AIDS increases in India, World Vision works to help children and parents cope with the devastation, while partnering with communities across the country to prevent the disease from spreading.

Although Kavitha and her siblings are not sponsored children, they receive help through World Vision funded programs in their area. Through World Vision programs, care is provided to those infected and affected by the disease, prevention is made a focal point, and advocacy efforts are centred on behalf of those who are infected.

World Vision supplies Kavitha's family with food rations, which helps when combined with her meagre monthly income of 1,100 rupees ($28). World Vision has also developed a local slum development committee in Kavitha's neighbourhood. This group uses child sponsorship funds to install clean water pumps, reconstruct homes and distribute notebooks and school bags to children. Community development workers also make house calls to support families affected by HIV and AIDS. It was through these programs that Kavitha's mother received HIV testing and counselling and was registered in World Vision's food rations and microcredit programs.

As the disease progresses for Kavitha's mother, she is asked what plans she has made for her family. Her response: "To lead the family is Kavitha's responsibility."