mothers2mothers

m2m's mission is to eliminate pediatric AIDS and create healthy families and communities by training, employing, and empowering HIV-positive mothers as frontline healthcare workers. Their intimate understanding of the social and cultural challenges of living with HIV gives these Mentor Mothers a unique ability to form trusted relationships with other women, vital to helping them access and stay on treatment for the best possible health outcomes for themselves and their families. Furthermore, by placing Mentor Mothers in critically understaffed health centres, we provide much needed support to doctors and nurses so that they have more capacity to focus on clinical work. And by employing community-based Mentor Mothers to reach women who have not engaged in the health system at their homes, we strive to make sure all at risk women have the education and support they need to access lifesaving medical care for themselves and their families.

At the heart of the Mentor Mother Model are the people most impacted by the HIV/AIDS pandemic – HIV-positive African women. Their personal experiences of challenges such as stigma and gender dynamics make them highly effective role models and behaviour change agents. Unlike the hurried doctors and nurses who work at Africa's understaffed health centres, m2m's Mentor Mothers can take as much time as necessary to help their clients overcome their shock and fear of testing HIV positive. They also reach out into communities to reach women who have not accessed medical care or who have stopped their treatment. By sharing similar backgrounds, cultural values, and even language, Mentor Mothers are able to develop intimate and trusted relationships with the women they serve. Their empathy and understanding gives other women the strength to overcome fears of stigma and discrimation and take steps that are critical to keeping themselves and their babies healthy, including disclosing their status to their families.

Equally important, Mentor Mothers are able to leverage the trusted relationships they form with their clients to tackle broader health issues and keep women engaged in the health system and on treatment over the long term, including cervical cancer, child immunisation, family planning, gender-based violence, neonatal male circumision, malari, nutrition, and TB.

m2m also engages mothers through early childhood development (ECD) services, a high intensive intervention delivered by specially-trained Mentor Mothers in homes to ensure that children thrive and that mothers stay in treatment and test their children for HIV. And when they reach reproductive age, m2m addresses the unique challenges faced by adolescents by providing the skills and knoweldge necessary to them to make the right choices. It is only then that the terrible cycle of paediatric AIDS will be broken and an HIV-free generation can become a reality.

m2m has spent more than 15 years refining our peer mentor–based training curriculum and tools that teach women how to catalyse change and reinforce healthy choices through their own life experiences. Our programme was recognised as a key strategy in the United Nation's Global Plan towards the Elimination of New HIV Infections among Children by 2015 and Keeping their Mothers Alive (Global Plan). For years, m2m has been a trusted partner to other non-profit organisations and national and local governments, and is currently providing technical assistance to the governments of Kenya and South Africa to establish national Mentor Mother programmes in order to ensure even more mothers and children are getting the comprehensive services they need for the best health outcomes.

An external evaluation of m2m's Mentor Mother Model found that it reduces mother-to-child transmission of HIV, improves maternal and infant health outcomes and psychosocial wellbeing, and saves significant money through averted HIV treatment costs. In addition, m2m's most recent Annual Evaluation found that m2m has achieved, on average, the virtual elimination of paediatric AIDS among m2m clients, according to the UN guidelines that defines elimination as a transmission rate of less than 5%.

Our goal is for all women delivering babies in the countries we serve receive Mentor Mother services, as we feel that all pregnant women could benefit from the support and education that the programme provides. Currently, 1 in 4 women delivering in countries where m2m has a presence received support and education from a Mentor Mother.

We are also working to make sure that our clients are retained in care over the long-term, and at the very least until their babies reach 18 months when they have their final HIV test and are no longer at risk of infection. Retention is a challenge facing all organisations that work in this space. We have been improving our retention rates, and expect to continue to do so through our new community engagement programme and by offering expanded services to engage women and their families in healthcare over the long term.