mothers2mothers (m2m) unlocks the potential of women to eliminate paediatric AIDS and create healthy families. We employ, train, and help to empower HIV-positive women. These "Mentor Mothers" work in local communities and at health facilities to ensure that women, their families, and their communities get the health advice, medication, and support they need. Our work has saved hundreds of thousands of lives, created thousands of jobs, and given health and hope to marginalised communities.
In sub-Saharan Africa, more than 200 babies are infected with HIV each day and AIDS is a leading cause of maternal death. Although lifesaving medical care exists, there are significant barriers to access, including a severe shortage of doctors and nurses, HIV-related stigma and discrimination, and a lack of knowledge about HIV/AIDS.
m2m's Mentor Mothers provide essential health education and peer support in health facilities, households, and communities to HIV-positive women and their partners to ensure they get on treatment and stick to it. Besides preventing mother-to-child transmission of HIV, Mentor Mothers also educate HIV-negative women on how to remain negative. Mentor Mothers' work addresses HIV's causes and effects with a lifecycle approach that spans pregnancy, birth, childhood, adolescence, and beyond.
m2m has proven to achieve better maternal and infant health outcomes and reduce mother-to-child HIV transmission rates while also creating significant savings through averted HIV treatment costs. Because paediatric AIDS will only be eliminated when children grow up healthy and reach reproductive age with the skills and knowledge necessary to make the right choices, m2m's approach extends well beyond pregnancy and birth.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
