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Rural households are managing as best they can in a rapidly changing and often threatening world which makes them vulnerable to the risk of HIV infection and ill equipped to cope with the effects of AIDS. Their chances of managing can be improved if they function in a supportive environment. However, in many cases this supportive environment does not exist and communities have to build their own resilience if they are to prove effective allies for rural households. Despite the difficulties of such a task, as shown in this paper, it is feasible. Certain conditions have to be met and pitfalls avoided in order to set up processes leading to sustainability and benefit all households as stakeholders. Such awareness is important for the communities themselves, but also for those providing outside assistance in order to trigger the building of community resilience and sustainability for all households, including in HIV/AIDS prevention and mitigation. This paper also reviews from a South East Asian perspective some of the lessons to be drawn from the global and African experiences and highlights some of the specificities and challenges of the region