How m2m is levelling up—again
Author: info@klassikdigital.co.za
The African continent is facing a preventable health crisis. Over 600 million people (52% of the population) cannot access the health care they need.
As a result of profound inequities, diseases we already know how to prevent or treat are having a devastating impact on women, children, and other vulnerable groups, and blocking African communities from reaching their full economic and social potential.
mothers2mothers (m2m) knows we can and must do more, and that our proven peer-led model can make a difference. As you’ll see in this video, that is the motivation behind our new 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, which we are unveiling today.
Over the next five years, m2m will take the next step in our evolution and become an integrated Primary Health Care organisation. Among the highlights:
- We will double down on our work to end AIDS, while expanding our support to include more reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health services.
- We will also use our proven, peer-led model to prevent and treat an expanded range of health conditions, including tuberculosis, malaria, cervical cancer, and non-communicable diseases—all of which disproportionately affect people living with HIV and other marginalised groups.
- We will do this without losing what makes us unique—the employment of African women living with HIV as community health workers (CHWs) will remain the cornerstone of our impact.
Through this new strategy, m2m believes we can end AIDS and reduce preventable deaths by a third for the women and families we serve across Africa by 2026—driving a powerful ripple effect of progress towards a healthier, fairer, more prosperous future.
To increase our impact, we will also do more to strengthen health systems. We will build on our strong partnerships with governments and provide expert advice and guidance to ensure that more female CHWs can be recruited, trained, certified, paid, and effectively integrated into national health infrastructure as the key resource and vital link that they are.
Why is m2m uniquely placed to execute this ambitious plan?
For more than 20 years, m2m has demonstrated that mothers living with HIV working as paid, professionalised CHWs can prevent and treat HIV and help women and children thrive—with transformative results for their communities and themselves.
Since we began, we have helped keep 1.17M at-risk women and almost 1M at-risk children alive.
We have achieved virtual elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV among our enrolled clients for eight consecutive years—all while creating jobs for nearly 12,000 women.
We also have undertaken successful pilots in most of these new intervention areas, and we are ready to go to scale.
Our new strategy is a logical—and necessary—next step to meet the needs of the communities we serve, unlock the full potential of our model, and play our part in creating a healthier, fairer, and more prosperous future.
We hope you will support us on our journey to ensure we provide health care for families who need it most, delivered by women who know them best.