“When I tested HIV-positive, I was so lost and lonely. I felt hopeless because of rumors saying that if you are pregnant and HIV positive, you will die a month after your baby is born. But everything changed after I met mentors from mothers2mothers, they taught me how to take care of myself while I was pregnant and my baby after he was born, so that I do not infect him.  Now my baby boy is 4 months old and has tested HIV negative. I am still a member of the m2m support groups. May it grow and extend to the entire world! Pele-ea-Pele! (Let it move forward!)”
- Mathabo, mothers2mothers client, Lesotho Africa

mothers2mothers was founded in 2001 to contribute a simple solution in what was considered a complex problem — preventing mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV/AIDS.
The founders recognized a terrible injustice; while in the US we have fewer than one baby born each day with HIV, in sub-Saharan Africa, every day 1,000 babies were still being born HIV positive, facing a future shadowed by sickness and death. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t right, and it was entirely preventable.

Hopelessness and major obstacles stood in the way, though. An overburdened medical system, the fear to disclose their status, and the belief that HIV/AIDS was a death sentence. The answer was within the women of Africa – extraordinary  woman that face insurmountable challenges with stoicism and courage that are also loving and devoted mothers. And so, that is the premise of mothers2mothers; to educate, employ and empower mothers living with HIV to work as Mentor Mothers and provide lifesaving support and information. By virtue of being paid, Mentor Mothers become role models in their townships and villages, supporting their families, speaking out in their villages, changing the social paradigm of discrimination and abuse…one mother at a time.  Operating in more than 600 sites in seven countries, m2m currently employs 1500 HIV-positive mothers and each year we reach hundreds of thousands of new HIV-positive mothers with messages of hope and health.

m2m is a partner in UNAID’s Global Plan to eliminate pediatric HIV by 2015 and keep mothers alive.  We can live in a world in which being born poor doesn’t have to mean a life without care for HIV…a world without AIDS orphans…a world where a child growing up in Tanzania or Malawi or Nigeria attends more birthday parties than funerals…where mothers living with HIV give birth babies without HIV…and live to see them thrive. You have the power to fund their efforts when you shop at ONEHOPEWINE.com – every online order gives you the decision of where we donate to. Over the next four weeks, select mothers2mothers at checkout and we give them 10% of your purchase.