mothers2mothers operates in seven countries at 599 sites. Click on a country to find out more.
Mentor Mother Story
Lesotho
In a country characterized by mountains and small rural areas,
it is not uncommon for Mentor Mothers to help heavily pregnant women who have spent hours trudging through rocky terrain in order to seek medical care.
| OVERVIEW: (As of March 2012) | |
| Program inception | 2007 |
| Sites | 75 |
| Site Coordinators | 28 |
| Mentor Mothers | 96 |
| Adult HIV prevalence* | 23.6% |
*Estimate, UNAIDS Report of the Global AIDS Epidemic 2010
In Lesotho, mothers2mothers is operating in every hospital and clinic that offers PMTCT services in the capital, Maseru. In three other districts (Butha-Buthe, Leribe, and Berea) m2m offers monthly couple support groups in addition to our basic program services. Lesotho may be one of the smallest countries in Africa, yet distances between communities and the country’s rural landscape makes reaching women a challenge. To overcome these obstacles, m2m partners with Riders for Health, an organization that trains health care workers to ride motorbikes in order to give them better access to difficult-to-reach locations. Several Mentor Mothers now conduct outreach in areas that were previously inaccessible. In addition, Mentor Mothers are working closely with health facilities in their mobile clinic initiatives, a monthly outreach program where large tents are used to provide medical services to remote communities without clinics. This initiative has proven very important - women queue for hours to ensure they receive treatment and meet with Mentor Mothers.
'There is hope. Hope that one day, we shall win this fight against HIV and AIDS…
HIV-positive pregnant women must get PMTCT services in order to have
HIV-negative babies. All of this is possible if we each contribute to this fight.'
(Matanki, Mentor Mother)
