However, taking over the pleasure of her scenic holiday was the expression of the starving child. The disturbing experience steered the course of Rabinovich's holiday. "The experience was so painful that I had to bring my holiday to an end. I stayed on to help. In the beginning, I fed 30 orphans - giving them bread rolls and cups of tea. However, within a month, the group around me grew to 1,500 hungry, most of whom had lost their mothers to AIDS," she recalls. She stayed on at a local hostel for the next two years to help out the children.

Gradually, Rabinovich, who communicated with the locals in English and later even learnt the local dialect, became acquainted with the women in the village who developed enough faith in the young woman to share their problems with her. She learnt that most of the impoverished women were compelled to have sex with strangers for food; and while they had heard terms such as HIV and AIDS, they were content to believe in the misconceptions and superstitions around the virus.

"It was so difficult for them to face the naked truth so they invented their own explanation," she elaborates. "People in Cape MaClear said that the people were ailing because of the 'bad spirit' and not because of HIV/AIDS. In fact, the condom was also suspect, with the locals arguing that it was invented by the 'mazongo' (white man) in order to spread the malady all across Africa." According to the locals, the lubricating substance of the condom was the HIV.

Troubled by the sight of the hunger and the level of ignorance amongst the locals, Rabinovich established a formal AIDS programme with the support of her local friends and funds garnered from some UK-based NGOs. With the main objective of the programme being advocacy, Rabinovich set out to educate the population on the subject of HIV/AIDS prevention and facilitate care and support of those infected. She also resolved to eradicate hunger. In 2001, the former tourist registered her NGO, the Chembe Aids Project (CAP) with the Government of Malawi.

"The first months were terribly difficult," admits Rabinovich. "It was almost impossible to talk about AIDS openly. The villagers even tried to expel me just because I stated that HIV is prevalent in Cape MaClear." However, she gradually began to win their trust.

Explains Rabinovich, "Some of my local friends and I created study groups for different age groups. The study groups were like master-trainer sessions. It was intended that the participants of the study group would later on become instructors themselves. Each group was exposed to a variety of concepts and issues such as human rights; the causes, symptoms and prevention of HIV/AIDS; clinical manifestations of HIV/AIDS; care of the sick; positive living with HIV/AIDS, teenagers and AIDS; hygiene; and contraception."

The results of the training sessions can be gauged from the example of Sofina, a former participant, who now instructs a group of 170 women about HIV/AIDS at the local church twice a month.

Today, CAP organises monthly lectures on a Sunday, once a month. The project has also taken on the singular responsibility of distributing condoms in the village. Every week CAP directly distributes 5,000 condoms donated by the district hospital to the community and in bars and at entertainment facilities.

The effectiveness of CAP activities can also be attributed to its strategic involvement of the local church. Members of the HIV/AIDS group have formed a choir and drama troupe that performs after the Sunday service. The audience, which comprises villagers, is invited to take part. There too, the CAP workers distribute condoms. Members of the group receive food rations once a month as remuneration.

In addition to advocacy, CAP workers provide medical assistance to HIV-positive villagers by funding treatment and organising transport to the clinic. CAP also provides food such as 'likuni pala' (porridge), maize flour, beans and vitamins to the ailing. In cases where the individual is too ill to tend to his or her crop, CAP arranges for local farmers.

"The major aim of CAP is to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS among the population of Cape MaClear. The other aims are to develop awareness to human rights; provide for the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS; supply food relief; and develop awareness of sanitation and hygiene," lists Rabinovich.

Rabinovich explains that the passivity of the villagers was an initial hindrance. "I don't blame them for being passive - they encounter death everyday and everywhere. However, today you can see condoms being distributed in the village. The young look to the future and are no longer reluctant to talk about AIDS. CAP students have become HIV/AIDS teachers, disseminating information."

Another achievement of the CAP project is its food-for-work programme, started in 2001, for the benefit of the locals. On the basis of a CAP survey, the most deserving families of the village are selected for the programme and provided with community work such as construction of a secondary school, road renovation, lakefront clean-up, graveyard maintenance, and English teaching. The programme participants take pride in their work and are recognised by the community as well.

Rabinovich, who now lives in Israel and has recently got married, admits that her heart lies in Cape MaClear. "I left the project to volunteers because I did not want to become 'the woman who saved the village'. I taught them the tools. It is now up to the villagers to choose whether or not to use them. Of course, I keep in touch with the locals."