mothers2mothers Launches Virtual Mentor Mother Platform to Confront COVID-19 Health Disparities

Today, we’re excited to share that mothers2mothers (m2m)—an African not-for-profit that trains and employs women living with HIV as frontline health workers has launched a new, interactive WhatsApp platform to provide vital health education and service referrals across nine African nations in over 30 languages.

Called the “Virtual Mentor Mother Platform”, this new chatbot will play an important role in getting lifesaving information to people when they want it, in a language they understand, and from a trusted source. This launch comes at a critical time as the COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating in many African nations, and further health education and support is urgently needed—not just on the coronavirus itself, but on many other areas as health systems are being severely disrupted.

The Virtual Mentor Mother Platform complements and deepens m2m’s existing in-person essential health education and eService delivery, making it possible for them to reach even more people with vital health information and support. Technical tools such as the VMMP will be an important part of the mix of services to beat COVID-19 and future pandemics, and will also play an important role in our collective journey to reaching universal health coverage by 2030.

The Skoll Foundation has supported m2m since 2008 when co-founders Gene Falk and Mitch Besser won the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship. We’re proud to support mothers2mothers during their COVID-19 response and we can’t wait to see the results of this new platform.

For more information, visit: https://m2m.org/covid-19

banner image: Mentor Mother Gladys Mulanga (right) with a colleague at Chonde Health Center in the Mulanje District of Malawi | Karin Schermbrucker, courtesy of mothers2mothers