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Organization	mothers2mothers
Region	South Africa
Website	Website
Facebook	Facebook
Twitter	@Twitter
ProjectLeader	Carolyn McEwen

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mothers2mothers (m2m) is building a healthy, thriving Africa. m2m trains, employs, and empowers women living with HIV as community health workers, called Mentor Mothers, to provide essential health education and services to pregnant women and new mothers, children, and adolescents. They are rigorously trained and paid, which benefits not only their families but also their communities. We work in 10 countries: Angola, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda.

Challenge

Africa's health systems are under tremendous strain. According to the World Health Organization, the continent has a shortage of 4.2 million healthcare workers, and by 2030 that figure will increase to 6.1 million. This is a major contributor to the HIV/AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa where over 250 children are infected with HIV each day, and nearly 7,000 adolescent girls and young women infected globally each week, the majority of whom live in the region.

Long-Term Impact

Addressing Africa's healthcare gap is critical to meeting the Global Goal of eliminating HIV/AIDS by 2030 and UNAIDS targets pertaining to testing, treatment, and viral suppression. To this end, the African Union has called for two million more community health workers to be deployed across the continent by 2020. Failure to meet this challenge will continue to limit Africa's socio-economic development.