Over the past two years, photographer Sönke C. Weiss traveled throughout the Congo and southern Africa, the region hardest hit by HIV/Aids. He wanted to find out about the women who have been affected by HIV/Aids there, who they are, what they think, how they deal with the Aids pandemic, how it affects their lives and their souls, and what the future holds for them.

Mr. Weiss found himself to be fascinated by the parallel existence of both frailty and courage in these women and struck by their kindness, love and passion for life. Nearly all of them had been infected by their husbands or longterm partners, yet he found grace and hope rather than the cynicism and bitterness he had expected. Mr. Weiss says: "I learned that they did not want to be defined by their disease, but by the life they still hoped for and by their relationships to others as daughters, sisters, friends, mothers and wives."

He does not see these women as victims; for him they are heroines. "Each day they fight against an invisible virus and the painful stigma often associated with it. They endure their suffering for the sake of their children, families and communities. Many experience sorrow; others find solidarity. But they all share a beauty and a bravery that I have yet to see duplicated elsewhere", Mr. Weiss says. The photographer believes that their stories exemplify the experience of countless other women around the world living with HIV/Aids. He hopes that his work does them justice.