Will these babies survive and thrive? Will they grow up at all, and if they do, what life can they expect? The first 1,000 days after conception will be critical.

In the rural Eastern Cape, 24% of pregnant mothers are HIV positive, and half of all child deaths in South Africa occur within the first month of life. So, the first imperative is to make sure that HIV is not transmitted from mother to baby. With interventions like our Mentor Mothers community programme, the mother to baby transmission rate is at 0%.

We are delighted with the progress we see in our communities, but the children start out life at such a disadvantage and our work is just the start of a very long and challenging road to maturity for them. Uninfected children living in HIV-exposed homes are often underweight and susceptible to serious, life-limiting infection before their first birthday. Far too many also have some form of cognitive deficit.

We are making a significant difference to life-chances and our work is providing the foundations for children to develop to their full potential. The support you give will literally last a lifetime.

You can read about our ground-breaking programmes here.

SAVE A LIFE APPEAL

We are hoping against hope that our communities have seen the worst of Covid-19. However, the health infrastructure is in deep crisis and health initiatives on the ground in our communities have been much depleted – mothers haven’t been able to attend all their antenatal appointments, the distribution of life-saving medication (including ARVs) has been disrupted and babies are missing out on their immunisation programme.

Our focus now is on rebuilding the health of our communities -ensuring children get vaccinated on time, connecting pregnant women with antenatal services and HIV testing and treatment, supporting children to reach a healthy weight, and concentrating on early childhood development to ensure no child is left behind. We need to ensure that mother and child health in our communities is ‘rebuilt’ before the progress of the past 10 years is compromised beyond repair.

To do that we need to ensure a continuous supply of medical supplies and equipment, PPE and nutrition packs. We also need to acquire another 4x4 vehicle to get our team to the more remote areas and set up more support and training of Mentor Mothers.

Please support our Save a Life Appeal.

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