2017-2023

MOTHERS AT THE FRONTLINE OF COMMUNITY HEALTH

2017-2023

Mothers2mothers

mothers2mothers (m2m) employs women living with HIV to help other women and their families access essential services and medical care. Our funding allowed m2m to expand its services in Uganda, including early childhood development, paediatric care and adolescent mentoring. Since 2001, m2m has served more than 13.5 million people in Southern and Eastern Africa and has created jobs for over 11,500 women living with HIV.

www.m2m.org

CHALLENGE

Uganda has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world. Over 17 women and 106 children die every day from maternal and child health issues in the country. Many of these deaths occur in rural areas where access to health services is limited. Uganda also faces an unprecedented HIV and AIDS burden among adolescents.

ACTION

m2m trains and employs women living with HIV as frontline community health workers – called Mentor Mothers – in severely under-served communities. Mentor Mothers work at health centres and in their communities to support women, children, adolescents and entire families to access necessary healthcare.

Preventing HIV infection and related diseases is a key focus of the programme. Mentor Mothers’ services span pregnancy, breastfeeding and early childhood development to ensure babies are born, and stay, HIV-free.

Trained Adolescent Peer Educators work in the same communities to educate adolescent girls and young women about sexual and reproductive health.

IMPACT

In the past 20 years, m2m’s work has resulted in the virtual elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV among the women they serve. In regions where Mentor Mothers work, child mortality was reduced to 2 per 1,000 live births (20 times lower than the average).

0.8

MOTHER-TO-CHILD HIV TRANSMISSION RATE

compared to 40% without m2m services