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Celebrating a Milestone

mothers2mothers (m2m)  is inviting you to celebrate an exciting milestone with us. The number of women and children we have reached since we began in 2001 has surpassed 11 million!  

That’s 11 million individuals who now have the opportunity for a hopeful and healthy future in which their dreams can become reality.

Who is responsible for creating these bright futures? The women living with HIV whom we employ as frontline health workers called Mentor Mothers. Each Mentor Mother reaches hundreds—even thousands—of clients each year. Women like Promise James, a Community Mentor Mother in the Mulanje District of Malawi, are at the heart of our unique peer-based approach through which women support other women and families in their communities to access vital health services and stay in care.

We are delighted to share Promise’s inspirational journey and the impact that this one woman is having in her community.

Every contribution counts, and will support our Mentor Mothers as they bring health and hope to women, children, and families across sub-Saharan Africa.

Promise’s Dreams

Promise James decided to become an m2m Community Mentor Mother to fulfill her dream of supporting other women and families in her community, by overcoming the challenges that she knows all too well as a woman living with HIV. When Promise was pregnant with her third child, she was aware of her status, and she feared she would pass the virus to her baby. She managed to find the courage to access and stay on medication that kept both mother and child healthy.

It’s her story—of  empowerment in the form of education and employment, and of perseverance to rise above her own life-threatening illness to help create health and hope for other families in her community—that we want to lift up this giving season.

Watch the video below to hear how Promise has created a brighter future for herself and is making her family’s dreams a reality…

Every contribution counts, and will support our Mentor Mothers as they bring health and hope to women, children, and families across sub-Saharan Africa.

A Mother’s Dream is Born

Mercy James met Promise when she was one month pregnant. She knew that Promise’s children had tested HIV-negative, even though Promise is living with the virus, and she dreamt that she, too, could give her baby a future free from HIV. Promise helped Mercy access treatment that would protect her baby from infection, and supported her to stay in care.  When her son, Rafiki, was born, Mercy’s dream was fulfilled: he was HIV-free.

Mercy’s m2m journey didn’t end when Rafiki was born. Promise is now shepherding Mercy and Rafiki through m2m’s Early Childhood Development (ECD) program to ensure that Rafiki meets all of the developmental milestones critical for success later in life. In 2018, m2m reached 30,775 children and caregivers with our ECD services, making Rafiki one of thousands of children who now have an opportunity to thrive, not just survive…and giving Mercy reason to dream big for his future.

Every contribution counts, and will support our Mentor Mothers as they bring health and hope to women, children, and families across sub-Saharan Africa.

It Takes a Village

In her job as a Community Mentor Mother, Promise travels up to 50 minutes by bicycle to visit women and families at home to educate them about HIV. She teaches her clients about the importance of testing and adhering to their medication, and she connects them to Mentor Mothers at the nearest health centre for support accessing essential health services. In an average week, Promise makes approximately 25 of these home visits, often reaching multiple clients in a single household.

What’s more, she leads multiple group sessions throughout the week. At her support groups, she educates women and men about HIV and promotes testing and treatment. Her parenting sessions create a platform for her to talk about nutrition, hygiene, and other best practices that ensure the healthiest possible outcomes for both parent and child–regardless of HIV status. Promise also meets with adolescent girls and young women at youth clubs, where she shares information on preventive measures for HIV and distributes contraceptives.

These group sessions enable Promise’s impact to multiply beyond simply serving one client at a time. And because she is a member of the community that she is serving, her message is more potent and resonates more deeply.

When you consider the tremendous effort that Promise—and Mentor Mothers like her—makes each week to bring health and hope to their communities, you’ll begin to grasp why reaching more than 11 million clients is such an important milestone for us!

Every contribution counts, and will support our Mentor Mothers as they bring health and hope to women, children, and families across sub-Saharan Africa.

We’re Not Finished Yet!

m2m has reached over 11 million women and children since we began, and each of them has  their own unique story of perseverance. Similarly, Promise is just one of over 10,000 women living with HIV that m2m has employed over the past 18 years. All of those Mentor Mothers have played a vital role in creating brighter futures and turning dreams into reality for hundreds–if not thousands–of women, children, and families in their communities.  

Join Promise–and other Mentor Mothers like her–to make even more dreams come true. By making a gift to celebrate their amazing accomplishments, you’ll help lay the foundation in which an HIV-free generation is a reality.

Keep the Dreams Alive…

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