mothers2mothers Skoll Awardee Profile Organization Overview Key Info Social Entrepreneur Gene Falk, Mitchell Besser Year Awarded 2008 Issue Area Addressed Education, Health Sub Issue Area Addressed Health Delivery, Women's and Girls' Education Countries Served Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia Website http://www.m2m.org Twitter handle m2mtweets Facebook http://www.facebook.com/mothers2mothersin tl Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/mothers2mothe rs About the Organization mothers2mothers (m2m) is an African NGO that bolsters healthcare systems and improves the health of families while delivering empowerment opportunities for women. Africa’s health systems are under tremendous strain with a shortage of 4.2 million healthcare workers, according to the World Health Organization. This makes it difficult for those who need healthcare to access services, remain in care, and adhere to their treatment. It is also a major contributor to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Other challenges to eliminating AIDS include HIV-related stigma and a lack of accurate health information. m2m tackles these challenges by training and employing women living with HIV as frontline health workers in health facilities and communities. These Mentor Mothers ensure that women and families receive quality healthcare education and services and are supported on their treatment journey. This integrated model of providing services across health facilities and communities improves access, uptake of treatment, adherence, and retention in care. Founded in 2001, m2m has reached more than 11 million women and children and created over 10,000 jobs. From an initial focus on eliminating pediatric AIDS, m2m has evolved its model to deliver family-centered support for a range of related issues spanning pregnancy, birth, childhood, and adolescence. The organization also partners with governments and other NGOs to spread its Mentor Mother Model’s benefits. Impact m2m’s 2018 program evaluation showed the continued impact of itswork for three core client groups—women, children, and adolescents. That includes achieving virtual elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV among enrolled clients for five years in a row, with a transmission rate of just 1.3 percent in 2018, well below the UN benchmark of 5 percent. m2m improved the health of women by supporting them to access treatment and stay in care. 97 percent of HIV-positive clients were enrolled in treatment in 2018, compared to a 93 percent benchmark in Eastern and Southern Africa. 94 percent of clients who started ART for the first time were still alive and on treatment after a year, compared to a 75 percent retention rate in Eastern and Southern Africa. m2M also played a major role in stopping new infections. Just 0.12 percent of the HIV- negative pregnant women supported by a Mentor Mother contracted HIV—a rate 30 times lower than the 2014 pan-African benchmark of 3.6 percent. Path to Scale m2m provides technical assistance to nongovernmental organizations, health ministries, and others to ensure m2m’s model is disseminated and sustained independently of the organization. Social Entrepreneur Long-time friends Mitch and Gene pursued very different paths: Mitch became a doctor and worked in developing countries, while Gene was successful in business and became a senior media executive. In 2000, Mitch moved to Cape Town, South Africa. His medical practice focused his attention on women who learned that they were HIV positive during their first prenatal visit. Many of them fled the clinic, never to return. Those who stayed did not get much counseling or education about their disease from the overworked doctors and nurses. A third of them gave birth to HIV positive babies. He realized that the other two-thirds – HIV-positive mothers who remained strong and took steps, including clinical treatments, to reduce the risk of infecting their babies – could be trained to work alongside clinic staff to comfort and counsel the terrified young women who had just learned their HIV status at the prenatal clinic. He launched m2m in 2001. Gene, who had been involved in HIV/AIDS issues for nearly 20 years, visited the first m2m site while on vacation. He was struck by the parallels to the early days of HIV/AIDS in the U.S., and realized that Mitch, who was running m2m on a shoestring, did not have the experience to build an organization capable of achieving global impact. So he moved to Cape Town and served as m2m’s executive director for a decade. Mitch continues to advise m2m as a non-voting member of the m2m US Board of Directors. He is currently focused on a new social entrepreneurial venture called AgeWell- a program using m2m’s Peer Mentor Approach to employ and train senior citizens to promote the well-being and health of other, less able seniors. Gene left m2m in 2011 to pursue other opportunities back in the U.S. Frank Beadle de Palomo became CEO in 2012. Equilibrium Overview Current Equilibrium Since 2008, the HIV and related policy landscape has changed significantly and positively, leading to a reduction in the number of HIV-infected babies by more than half in the past 10 years. This progress has been driven by coordination among key policy actors (e.g. international policy community, major bilateral and multilateral donors and host country health ministries) as well as advancements in HIV care, treatment programs and drug regimens.[1] Despite this progress, however, as of 2015 more than 400 children (under 15 years of age) around the world are still infected each day with HIV, the majority acquiring HIV from their mothers during pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding.[2] Most of these children live in sub-Saharan Africa, the region most affected by the global HIV/AIDS epidemic, and home to almost 70% of all people living with HIV.[3] While effective and inexpensive medical interventions are available, most health centers in sub-Saharan Africa are still severely understaffed, which leaves doctors and nurses with inadequate time and attention for all the needs of pregnant women, new mothers and their babies. Moreover, HIV-related stigma is still prevalent in many African communities, causing women to live in fear of an HIV diagnosis and making it difficult for them to access and adhere to medical care for themselves and their families. Gender inequalities, poverty, gender-based violence, age-disparate relationships, and limited access to quality adolescent and youth friendly services lead to continuously increasing rates of new HIV infection among adolescent girls and young women (aged 15-24), with as many as 7,500 new infections a week globally [4]. As a result, the rates of mother-to-child transmission of HIV and maternal mortality are still needlessly high, and the HIV/AIDS epidemic among adolescents is growing. [1] Specifically, policy coordination has driven the integration of programs for the Prevention, or Elimination of Mother-to-Child Transmission of HIV ("PMTCT or eMTCT) into the broader Reproductive, Maternal, and New Born Child Health ("RMNCH") programmatic and policy framework. Moreover, most countries now initiate pregnant, positive women on treatment for life. Countries are moving rapidly towards "Test and Treat" universal treatment program as the only way to try to halt the spread of HIV. [2] UNAIDS On the Fast-Track to an AIDS-Free Generation [3] 2015 Global HIV and AIDS Statistics, AVERT [4] 2016 UNAIDS Prevention Gap Report New Equilibrium In the new equilibrium, overburdened, resource-poor health-care systems are bolstered by community health workers located in clinics and within communities with the ability to provide the customized, comprehensive health education and psychosocial support needed to ensure that HIV-positive mothers, their children and adolescent family members access treatment and are retained in care. Trusted community workers are not only able to reach women and their children, but also their male partners and other family members and link them to health centers for essential medical services. With this support, women are able to test more often, be initiated on ARV treatment for life sooner, navigate the steps needed to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV and keep their babies healthy, adhere to treatment themselves and keep their families healthy. The stigma of HIV begins to fade as more HIV-positive women receive this support, take control over their lives and are no longer afraid to seek the care they need. As a result, health centers have greater human resources available to provide care and services while achieving an increase in uptake of treatments – this leads to lower transmission rates consistent with that in the developed world ( Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org).