During one of the first Still Harbor sessions at Global Health Corps’ Training Institute in June of 2014, we were asked to think about our heroes. My mind immediately went to the easy, obvious choices – the type of person who is idolized by many and has had a tremendous impact on society – like Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and Mahatma Gandhi. Then the facilitator clarified that a hero should be someone who has actually made an impact on my life. This proved to be a bit more challenging as I asked myself, what qualities does a person possess to make them a hero? The facilitator probed further – what conventions have they challenged? What specific characteristics do I want to preserve and personify? I finally managed to identify someone who had pushed me to pursue a career in global health, but I had a hard time categorizing this person as my hero. While this exercise was difficult (and admittedly a bit frustrating), it forced me to think about who has influenced my life and pushed me to become the person I aspire to be.
After three months in Malawi working as a Project Officer for mothers2mothers (m2m), I have discovered not one hero, but a group of heroes to add to my list – the Mentor Mothers, who are the center of m2m’s prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV model. The Mentor Mothers I have met while traveling throughout the country are brave, resilient, and dedicated. These mothers are HIV-positive and each has successfully given birth to a healthy, HIV-negative baby. The Mentor Mothers work alongside doctors and nurses in understaffed health centers as members of the healthcare team. They provide essential health education and psychosocial support to other HIV-positive mothers on how to protect their babies from HIV and keep themselves and their families healthy. The Mentor Mothers’ relationship with their communities and personal experiences of living with HIV make them highly effective peer mentors. These women are an inspiration to me as they work at the ground level, serving as role models and empowering mothers living with HIV, while also contributing to the larger fight to end pediatric AIDS.
While visiting Nsanje District Hospital in the southern part of Malawi, I met Ruth, a Mentor Mother who serves as the m2m Site Coordinator at the hospital. As the Site Coordinator, Ruth sees clients and also supervises the other Mentor Mothers at Nsanje District Hospital. After checking in with her regarding the program and any related issues, I asked her how many children she had. Immediately her face lit up with a huge grin and she said, “I have three children. They are all HIV-negative.” I smiled back and told her how wonderful that was to hear. Later, I realized that moments like these are why I am inspired to continue this work. As her clients give birth to healthy babies, I can only imagine that Ruth has similar moments on a regular basis– moments that demonstrate the impact she is making on the women and families in her community. I would guess that these moments contribute to Ruth’s motivation and commitment to her work as well.
Upon arriving in Malawi, I did not expect to find a new hero, let alone 251 of them. Ruth and her fellow Mentor Mothers face hardships and stigma as mothers living with HIV, but they continue to empower and educate other HIV-positive women through their work with m2m. The compassion that these women exemplify and the heart-wrenching stories they share are not what surprises me; rather, it is the impression that their kindness, heroism, and incessant strength has had on me during my short time in Malawi.