HFFG & CHAG trains 141 Mentor Mothers to support the treatment of HIV infections among mothers and their children to reduce the rate of new infections.
Hope For Future Generations (HFFG), as a sub-recipient under the Community System Strengthening (CSS) intervention of the Global Fund’s New Funding Model III grant together with the principal recipient, the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG), have conducted a 3-day residential training for selected Mentor Mothers drawn from all sixteen regions of Ghana.
As part of their roles, the Mentor Mothers would provide psychosocial support, adherence counselling, education on nutrition and prevention using their lived experiences.
Mentor mothers are women living with HIV who have successfully gone through the prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV care and support services and delivered HIV negative babies, and now volunteers to provide peer support to other women in the same condition.
The program which was piloted in Ghana in the year 2020 is currently being scaled up as part of the Global Fund’s New Funding Model III grant under the Community System Strengthening (CSS) intervention. The contribution of Mentor Mothers to the national HIV treatment and care program remains critical in the achievement of the global 95-95-95 HIV targets particularly in reducing new infections through birth.
As of 2020, the mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV in Ghana stood at 20% being the fourth highest rate of MTCT of HIV among the 23 high burden countries identified by UNAIDS and the second highest in West Africa. As part of efforts to reduce the prevalence, Hope for future Generations and the Christian Health Association of Ghana (CHAG) being the two organizations implementing the CSS intervention have strategically placed Mentor Mothers in health facilities across the country to support their peers to deliver HIV negative babies.
Significance of the Training
The training provided the platform for the mothers to share their experiences. It also provided adequate and accurate information about HIV Care and Treatment including human rights related issues as well as stating the roles and responsibilities of Mentor mothers in achieving the 95-95-95 targets.
Recruitment of Mentor Mothers
Key to the success of the Mentor Mother program is the involvement of the regional and district HIV focal persons, in-charges of the antenatal care (ANC) units and the Antiretroviral Therapy (ART) units for maximum support to mothers willing to be agents to combat rate of transmission of HIV in Ghana.