Mothers 2 Mothers is a program that wants babies, mothers and families with HIV to have hope for the future. They fight for a world in which babies are not infected with HIV and that mothers with the disease have a long and healthy life, allowing the care of their families.
This is a program initiated by Mitchell Besser in 2001 in South Africa and is currently present in more than 600 communities in 8 African countries, with very encouraging results.
Mothers 2 Mothers trains HIV-positive mothers, for two months, to offer psychosocial support and HIV education to HIV-positive pregnant mothers who had not followed prenatal check-ups, or who had not tested their children for HIV.
Those who know the program point out that it is working, that it has become a model of local cooperation that reaches people who need it, even in hard-to-reach areas. The performance of 1600 "expert mothers" help another 200,000 across the continent.
The aid is not limited to offering advice or education, but goes much further and performs an integrating and healthy social function. For example, it is possible to reduce the stigma of patients with HIV and AIDS, improving their living conditions, access to medical care ...
It is also possible to avoid and reduce the vertical transmission of the disease to newborns, and also offers an important emotional support for mothers and families with a member with HIV.
In the video, to which we can put the subtitles in Spanish, appears Mitchell Besser, the founder of Mothers 2 Mothers, talking about the harsh reality of AIDS in Africa. Point out the problem of stigmatization, taboo and the overwhelming figures of AIDS in Africa Sub-Saharan
22 million people infected, almost one and a half million pregnant women and three hundred thousand deliveries every year in South Africa (compared to 7,000 in the United States).
But, against these figures, a change is proposed. It ensures that action can be taken, and that the population must be educated to achieve these changes. The results seem to prove him right, although we must continue to fight for recognition and help against AIDS worldwide, every day.
We have to believe it, and the words of the founder of Mothers 2 Mothers, the program that supports mothers with HIV, point to optimism. From here, the global fund for the fight against AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria reminds us that we can act.
