Our work in Kenya
mothers2mothers (m2m) began work in Kenya in 2008. Four years later, the East African nation became the first to adopt the Mentor Mother Model as part of its national healthcare policy. This demonstrates the impact our work can have through long-term, sustained, and collaborative government partnership.
By working in close partnership with the Ministry of Health’s National AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infection Control Programme, and with funding from USAID and Comic Relief, m2m helped devise the relevant policy, then prepared and introduced the Kenya Mentor Mother Program (KMMP) nationwide over a five-year period. This process included training and equipping more than 20 organisations to establish and manage the KMMP—from large international non-governmental organisations, to small faith-based groups. By September 2018,
the Kenyan government—with funding from The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria—had expanded the KMMP to all 47 counties.
Today, m2m provides advice and technical assistance to a variety of public- and private-sector partners, and operates a KMMP model health facility site in Nairobi. With funding support from Johnson & Johnson, we’ve applied m2m’s integrated service platform methodology to diversify the KMMP model and offer healthcare services at the community level.
With funding from LGT Venture Philanthropy, m2m Kenya introduced mHealth mobile data collection applications and integrated early childhood development services into its programming beginning in November 2018.
Jannes Okinyi K’Odero, Regional HIV Linkage and Referrals Cluster Lead at Family AIDS Care and Education Services (FACES), an HIV/AIDS prevention care and treatment programme in Kisumu County trained by m2m to implement the KMMP.
Our Impact in Kenya
According to UNAIDS guidelines, m2m’s mother-to-child transmission rate of HIV among its enrolled clients is lower than the national average.
99%
of HIV-positive women enrolled at m2m were initiated on antiretroviral therapy (ART) for life.
97%
of HIV-exposed infants of enrolled m2m clients were given ART to protect them from infection.
88%
of these HIV-exposed infants were tested for HIV at 6-8 weeks.
Kenya’s health system faces severe challenges, including a lack of staff and stock outs of key drugs. These systemic factors have an impact on some of our key metrics.
6 – Our MTCT rate is comparable to the UNAIDS MTCT Indicator, as outlined in their guidelines available here: https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/2017-Global-AIDS-Monitoring_en.pdf. National benchmark is based on the latest available UNAIDS data, published here: https://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/20190722_UNAIDS_SFSFAF_2019_en.pdf
Success Story
Wilbroda Awuor Akuro, a Community Mentor Mother in Nairobi, Kenya, tested HIV- positive in 2015 when she was pregnant. She thought it was a death sentence for her and her unborn child.
“Fortunately, the nurse took me to meet the Mentor Mothers from mothers2mothers who helped me understand that it wasn’t the end of my life and I could have an HIV-negative child. The hardest part of my journey was disclosing my status to my family. They even separated the utensils I was using in the house from everyone else’s. My self-esteem was reduced to zero percent. Being a single mother, jobless, and depending on people for help was a nightmare.
That changed when I started working for mothers2mothers. I used what I learned to educate my family about HIV and they started treating me like a human being again. My role as a Mentor Mother is to educate and empower women with knowledge that will help them make informed decisions about their sexual lives, make them feel understood, accepted, and appreciated. I know how important that is—and that is why I am now dedicating my life to do the same for all the women and families I meet.”
