Before long in every country the sisters had to radically expand their existing range of health services to embrace the whole gamut of medical, social and economic needs that emerged alongside the spread of HIV.

Perhaps the biggest challenge was the stigma - helping societies to 'break the silence' that surrounded the new disease.

Sister Kay Lawlor's participative process called 'Education for Life' was first presented at an international Conference on AIDS in Dakar in 1986.

This has since been translated and culturally adapted for use in many African countries.

The use of puppets and street theatre for popular education was developed early on. The Puppet has a Cough drama fascinated audiences at many a street corner or community hall and provoked lively discussion and education.

The expansion of palliative care, training of hundreds of local volunteers as home-based carers, and the campaign to persuade governments to allow the importation of oral morphine were other challenges the sisters embraced.

In Ethiopia, Sister Carol Breslin and her team developed a HIV manual in Braille and other tools for training people who have special needs around their vulnerability to HIV infection. In Malawi and elsewhere, the sisters together with their local teams are involved in helping orphaned children to discover their family history through storytelling.

In Uganda, Sister Ursula Sharpe and her team developed the concept of Farm Schools for the support and ongoing education of child-headed households - a model which has now been adopted by the UN in other countries.

Medical Missionaries of Mary are working at the coalface. Their Yearbook just published contains interviews with nine sisterdoctors on some of the challenges presented by HIV and AIDS now.

Donations are gratefully received by the sisters for HIV/AIDS and other areas of healthcare and development. When a donor specifies a country or area of need, 100% of that donation is sent overseas according to the donor's wishes. Nonspecified donations are placed in the General Mission Fund to cover the greatest current needs overseas and emergency requests.

The address for donations is Medical Missionaries of Mary, Rosemount Terrace, Booterstown, Co. Dublin.

Tel: (01) 2887180. Online donations can also be made online