Feature Story

A MAMA+ employee works
with a client

Halyna, a young mother in Ukraine, was 28 years old and preparing to give birth to her third child when she was told that she was HIV-positive.  She was devastated to learn that she had a life-threatening illness, and unsure how she would take care of her children and keep her family together all in the face of deep stigma.  She was considering abandoning the newborn child, when she met the team from Doctors of the World-USA’s MAMA+ project.  MAMA+ immediately provided Halyna with information and support, giving her the confidence and hope she needed  to keep her child.  She is now enrolled in the MAMA+ program, receiving counseling, legal advice, job placement assistance and supplies such as food and diapers, as she builds her life and cares for her family.
 
Halyna is one of many.  In Ukraine, Russia, and many countries of the former Soviet Union, the number of children born to HIV+ mothers has grown at a rapid pace.  Tragically, rates of abandonment of children born to HIV+ mothers are estimated to be as high as 20%.  The health system is not currently equipped to provide these women with the necessary information, support, and counseling to enable them to remain with their children or to address the deep stigma and discrimination they face from their families, service providers and society.
 
DOW’s MAMA+ project works with local partners such as hospitals, government agencies, social service organizations, and health professionals to provide women with HIV the access to care, support and information needed to prevent child abandonment, and help keep families together.  MAMA+ is a model of service delivery and policies that has already been replicated in six locations throughout Russia and Ukraine.  Since 2004, the program has helped hundreds of HIV+ mothers to care for their children and themselves while developing the capacity of local partners to continue delivery of these services in the future.
 
This Mother’s Day, you can help Doctors of the World-USA support women in crisis and keep families together.  Through long-term commitment, community mobilization and with the support of partners around the world, DOW works with local organizations to build sustainable access to health care for the excluded and vulnerable while combating the injustice that allows disease to flourish, epidemics to spread, and wounds to remain unhealed.  We are grateful for the generosity of our supporters, who make all of our programs possible.