EFTA02021372.pdf

To: [email protected][[email protected]]; jeevacation mail.com '[email protected]] From: Sent: Thur 1/5/2012 6:01:50 PM Subject: On Mother's Army thing I'm not sure where it went with -lbut it is a good idea: The value of mentors who have been there By Michael Skapinker Financial Times January 4, 2012 • Three-quarters of the world's HIV-positive pregnant women live in 12 African countries, including South Africa. • At Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto, 8,000 HIV-positive women give birth each year. This is more than in the whole of the US. • Untreated, 40 per cent of those women will give birth to infected babies. • Ms Mbhele is one of an army of HIV-positive mothers who persuade pregnant women to take an Aids test, advise them to submit to the treatment that will help ensure their babies are born healthy and then support them if they need antiretroviral drugs to stay alive to look after their children. • These "mentor mothers" work for an organisation founded in 2001 by Mitchell Besser, an American obstetrician. • Mothers2mothers (m2m) operates in seven African countries, employing 1,475 mentors and site co-ordinators who deal with 78,000 women each month. EFTA_R1_00527084 EFTA02021372