Together with Mitch, we set out to realize a dream. From Day 1, it was a roller coaster…exhilarating, scary, and the most fun I had ever had. Opening our first real office with a skeleton staff consisting mostly of committed volunteers from the Princeton-in-Africa program, with no budget and no assets, I felt completely over my head but also completely alive, and in a weird way, feeling like my brain was working hard for the first time in many years. It was amazing!
Let me tell you what I think is the greatest injustice of our time…that there are fewer babies born with HIV/AIDS in the U.S., UK and Europe combined than in a year than in a single African clinic. There isn’t a reason in the world why a baby should be born with the virus…it is easy and cheap to prevent. It comes down to caring for the only people who can stop this tragedy…the mothers.
mothers2mothers uses education and empowerment as tools to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS during pregnancy, combat stigma within families and communities, support a mother’s adherence to medical treatment, and reduce the likelihood of AIDS orphans.
Located in clinics that offer medical treatment to women living with HIV, mothers2mothers fills the gaps left by public health systems, providing a secure, warm environment where women can feel safe to share their fears and feelings about their children’s health, disclosure to their partners, friends and family, and the feeling of helplessness engendered by being alone, pregnant and infected with HIV/AIDS.
We knew mothers2mothers would work but that first year we had nothing to sell it on other than enthusiasm and faith. For office furniture, I scavenged the streets of the townships, getting mugged as I tried to purchase an ancient desk, collecting castoffs from people who seemed to have nothing…but muggings are for another blog and another day.
Mitch and I ran from country to country, enlisting the support of local ministries of health, other nonprofits, and a handful of believers. Gradually, people started to join us, trusting us with their money. The donations started small and for every $5,000 we would do a mad victory dance. Our first corporate donor, Johnson & Johnson, belied everything I’d ever thought about big pharmaceuticals. The people from its Corporate Contributions department supported us not just with funds, but guided us in ways to make us legitimate, steering us to more effective ways to prove results.
