It never crossed Khonjiswa Mdyeshana’s mind that she could be HIV-positive. So, in 2006, when she tested positive for HIV while pregnant with her first child, she couldn’t believe it. She insisted on taking the test three times. Much to her shock, every result came back positive. “In my mind, it was the end of the world for me and my child,” she says.

What Ms Mdyeshana didn’t know was that working alongside the doctors and nurses at her health clinic were HIV-positive Mentor Mothers, employed and trained by Africa-based nongovernmental organization mothers2mothers (m2m). The Mentor Mothers provided women just like her with education and support to initiate and adhere to their HIV treatment.

“The women at m2m made me feel welcome and unafraid. They told me their own stories of living with HIV. They taught me how to prevent spreading the virus to my baby and live positively. I have to be honest, I was not 100% sure about everything, but somehow I had new hope that it was not the end,” Ms Mdyeshana says.

Since m2m was founded in 2001, it has become a global leader in efforts to bring paediatric HIV infections to zero and improve the health and well-being of mothers, families and communities.

The m2m Mentor Mother model has been proven to reduce the number of infants who become infected with HIV and improve the health outcomes of mothers and babies, while also saving money in averted HIV treatment costs. A recently released annual evaluation of m2m’s programmes found that, in 2015, m2m achieved significant results:

• m2m virtually eliminated mother-to-child transmission of HIV among its clients for the second year in a row, with a mother-to-child transmission of HIV rate of 2.1% after 24 months.
• In South Africa, m2m’s transmission rate was even lower—1.1% after 18 months.
• Mothers who met two or more times with a Mentor Mother were more than seven times more likely to have their babies tested for HIV at six weeks compared to mothers who had met a mentor just once.

“It’s a joy to go into a site and hear a nurse or the head of the clinic say, “You need to know that it’s been three years since we have had a baby born in this clinic with HIV because of mothers2mothers,”” says m2m President and Chief Executive Officer, Frank Beadle de Palomo.

However, children are still becoming infected during the breastfeeding period. And there is a rising number of infections and deaths among adolescents, particularly adolescent girls and young women.

Responding to this need, m2m now engages mothers and their families over a longer period of time with a family-centred approach. m2m looks beyond survival, focusing on giving children the opportunity to thrive through its early childhood development and paediatric case finding and support programmes. And the new DREAMS initiative in South Africa is providing adolescents with the skills and knowledge necessary to protect themselves and the next generation from HIV.

As for Ms Mdyeshana, she has come a long way since 2006. She now works as a Mentor Mother, helping other women realize that living with HIV is not the end of their world. She is a proud mother to two HIV-free children, who are full of life, happiness and big dreams.

Her oldest, Luthando, now nine years old, tells his mother he is studying hard so that when he grows up he can get a good job and buy them a bigger house. That job? He says he is going to become a doctor, because he sees “a lot of sick people around” and wants to help them. While he works towards that dream, he is practising his medical skills at home, reminding his mother, who he describes as “strong and beautiful,” to take her HIV medicine every day.