Mentor Mother Model

29 Mar

MLC Vanguard | Created by mothers2mothers

mothers2mothers (m2m) employs and trains local women living with HIV as community health workers called Mentor Mothers. They support women, children, and adolescents—our three core client groups—with vital medical services, education, and support.

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15,000,000 Lives Impacted

Since our founding, m2m has employed over 11,000 women living with HIV as community health workers. Through this employment, women become role models and leaders in their communities, which helps to reduce stigma associated with HIV.

By employing women as frontline health workers, we are shifting the traditional paradigm of men being the primary source of income in families, and providing opportunities for women to empower themselves through education and employment. Services are delivered by Mentor Mothers, who are living with HIV and are from the same communities as their clients—creating empathy and shared experiences that lead to more effective services, and are often underpinned by a deep personal commitment by the Mentor Mother herself.

A few key statistics of m2m’s impact:

Women, aged 15-49: 0.12% of the HIV-negative pregnant women supported by an m2m Mentor Mother contracted HIV, which is 30 times lower than a 2014 pan-African benchmark of 3.6%
94% of m2m's relevant enrolled clients delivered their babies attended by skilled health personnel, compared to 59% on average in sub-Saharan Africa. This reduces the risk of maternal and infant death.
1,500+ women living with HIV were employed directly by m2m as Mentor Mothers. Children, aged 0-9: 72% of infants born to m2m clients had their final HIV test at 18-24 months and received the results in 2018, a dramatic rise from 2017.
1.3% is the rate of mother-to-child transmission of HIV among m2m enrolled clients. This is well below the benchmark of 5% that the UN defines as "virtual elimination".
30,775 children and caregivers benefitted from our integrated ECD services across four countries in 2018.
Adolescents, aged 10-24: 0.18% of HIV-negative adolescent girls and young women enrolled in our program between 2016-2018 contracted HIV
100% of the HIV-positive adolescent girls and young women we served in 2018 took their treatment over 80% of the time, making them likelier to be healthy and virally suppressed
289,500 adolescents and young adults were enrolled in m2m's program in 2018, which signals an 18% rise over the previous year.

The Innovation

At the height of the AIDS pandemic in 2001, mothers2mothers’ (m2m) Founder, Dr. Mitch Besser MD, was struggling to get pregnant women newly diagnosed with HIV in South Africa to access lifesaving treatment, when he hit on an idea—employ former patients who had successfully adhered to treatment and given birth to an HIV-free child as peers called “Mentor Mothers” to help others walk this same path. This simple peer-based model quickly caught on and proved effective—supporting mothers to stay healthy and children to be born HIV-free. Fast-forward two decades and m2m has grown into an organization that employs Mentor Mothers as community health workers across ten African nations, and has reached over 11M pregnant women, new mothers, and children.

We have achieved virtual elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV among our enrolled clients for six years in a row, with a transmission rate of just 1.9% in 2019, significantly lower than the United Nations benchmark of 5%. Our model has been held up as best practice by UNAIDS, UNICEF and others. We have also leveraged our model and the strong relationships Mentor Mothers build with their clients to deliver complementary services that help entire families thrive, in such areas as early childhood development, adolescent health, and non-communicable diseases. We have also created livelihood and empowerment opportunities for over 11,000 African women living with HIV, who might otherwise be among society’s most marginalized.

Implemented in

Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia

Get in touch

Carolyn McEwen
carolyn.mcewen@m2m.org

About mothers2mothers

mothers2mothers (m2m) employs women living with HIV as Community Health Workers called Mentor Mothers. m2m Mentor Mothers work both at health facilities and door-to-door to improve the health of communities across ten African nations. They deliver life-changing services to women, children, adolescents, and entire families. This Model improves health of communities, while delivering meaningful employment for women living with HIV.

mothers2mothers (m2m) is made up of three affiliated nonprofit organisations with a common, shared vision and mission. While each entity is governed by a separate board, they are managed by a shared set of senior management leaders, including a President/Chief Executive Officer (based in South Africa), and several board members for governance across entities.

m2m South Africa —based in Cape Town—is our global headquarters and provides leadership for direct implementation of programmes across Africa, business development and strategy, communications, human resources, innovations, policies, partnerships, finance, and administration, and core compliance and quality assurances oversight. Our country offices across Africa are closely affiliated with m2m South Africa, but have their own leadership and boards.

m2m United States and m2m United Kingdom—our New York City and Los Angeles-based United States operations and London-based European operations—provide leadership for key donor relationships, geographical-specific fundraising, key regional and international policy and advocacy activities, and communications.