With Malawi having one of the highest rates of AIDS in the world and prevention programmes visibly continuing to fail, the present study was motivated by the pressing need to 1aentify alternative and sustainable resources. A total of 175 undergraduates at the national University of Malawi rated the credibility, both past and future, of the possible sources of advice regarding the disease. This time perspective revealed just one consistently prominent resource: the community alternative of the family. We discuss the applications of this particular finding within the real context of changes occurring in Malawi's political and economic situation, concluding that the family has the potential to make a truly significant contribution to the management of AIDS in the country, and very possibly in the region as a whole.