mothers2mothers International

mothers2mothers (m2m) is an African-based not-for-profit organization that believes African mothers are the greatest resource available to ending paediatric AIDS and creating healthy families and communities. m2m trains, employs, and empowers local mothers living with HIV (Mentor Mothers) as a different kind of frontline healthcare worker, using their unparalleled understanding of the social and cultural challenges of living with HIV to form trusted relationships and common bonds with other pregnant women and new mothers just like themselves. By sharing their own experiences with HIV and providing education and support, Mentor Mothers are vitally important in helping women to access care early, stay in care, and adhere to their treatments for the welfare and future of their families. Mentor Mothers are professionalized, employed, and economically independent, fighting stigma and discrimination through example and becoming role models and leaders in their communities. This peer-based approach has proven to achieve better health outcomes and reduce mother-to-child transmission rates, while also creating significant savings through averted HIV treatment costs. Since its found in 2001, m2m has reached more than 1.3 million positive women in nine African countries.