ZIMBABWE: Orphaned twins Mathew and Matthias Sizizba dream of playing cricket for Zimbabwe and owning a pair of shoes - but not necessarily in that order.
The two 13-year-old boys have been living on their own in the Luveve township near the southern city of Bulawayo since their mother died from Aids in 1999. Their father died from the disease in 1992.
The boys do not have any birth certificates so they cannot get access to formal education and they have no way of earning money to buy food.
Next door 17-year-old Maurice Ndodo has been elevated to the position of head of his family following the death of his parents from Aids in 2002. His three siblings, who range in age from 10 to 15 years, sit sullenly in their small but spotlessly clean home as he explains their situation.
"My family is having problems at school because we have no sponsors and no money. We sometimes only eat a meal of porridge once a day. I want to get a driving licence so I can earn money but each lesson costs €18. What can I do?"
Maurice finds life very difficult now that he has been thrust into the role of a parent, way before his time. Although he has relatives, he says they never come to help him or his brothers.
"I get no time with my friends any more. I have to take on all these responsibilities but I am not ready. I do not know what to do," he whispers softly while staring at a picture of his dead parents, who stand proudly dressed in their wedding outfits.
In Maurice's extended neighbourhood, which covers 20 districts, the Catholic Relief Service looks after 237 child-headed households.
Unicef, the United Nations' children's organisation, has estimated that 24.6 per cent of Zimbabwe's population has contracted the HIV/Aids virus and 160,000 children will experience the death of a parent this year.
One hundred babies are becoming HIV positive every day and a child dies every 15 minutes from the virus.
According to Catholic Relief Service field operator Bernadette Dabe, the worst case her organisation has dealt with involves a household looked after by a six-year-old girl. She has been responsible for her two-year-old sister since their parents passed away recently.
"It is an awful situation. The little girl's relatives came and stole everything from the house. Now she has nothing. Her grandmother wants to look after them, but culturally it is the responsibility of the father's family so she cannot take them in."
Such is the extent of the Aids crisis that Dabe says she has to limit herself to attending two funerals a day from the neighbourhoods she is involved with; otherwise she would spend all day every day at the graveyard.
She is highly critical of the government, which she claims is practically ignoring the epidemic, and she deplores the paltry Zim$4 which has been allocated to each child as an education supplement. "There are also neighbours in the areas here willing to help the children as much as they can but they have no money to do so. They offer advice, what else can they do?"
As the anti-Mugabe - Zimbabwe's president - western world awaits the outcome of Zimbabwe's general election, the international aid needed to tackle the crisis has almost dried up.
According to a Unicef statement: "Zimbabwe received little or no HIV/Aids funding last year from the main donor initiatives: the US President's Initiative on HIV and Aids; the World Bank Multicountry Aids Programme; or the Global Fund against Aids/TB/Malaria."
In southern Africa, which is the area most devastated by HIV/Aids, the average annual donor spending from among these three initiatives is US$74 for each HIV-infected person. In Zimbabwe the figure is just US$4.
Overall, donor support for Zimbabwe is far lower than in any other country in the region. The World Bank estimates that Zimbabweans annually receive US$14 per capita from both official development assistance and official aid from the World Bank, the IMF and other international organisations. This is less than one-quarter of what Namibians (US$68) receive and about 12 per cent of those in neighbouring Mozambique (US$111).
"It is our hope that the world looks for ways other than children to pressure the government of Zimbabwe," says Unicef's communication officer in Zimbabwe James Elder.
"Zimbabwe's children are suffering horrendously. Their parents are dying in terrifying numbers, leaving a generation of orphans without family, food and perhaps a future. But Zimbabweans are educated and determined to improve their lot, but they can't do it without international help."