We are incredibly excited to announce that we’ve teamed up with mothers2mothers as our chosen charity partner for the coming year. After several meetings with the European director, Emma France, and her team, we are so inspired by their work and are looking forward to partnering with mothers2mothers during our upcoming ShopUp events (and other opportunities) to help raise awareness and donations for this wonderful cause.

What I love about this charity is that they are empowering mothers to help other mothers. They do this by training and employing mothers living with HIV to bring health and hope to other mothers, their families, and communities. Another thing I really like about the charity is that their goal of eliminating paediatric aids is entirely achievable. In fact, the results are there to prove it. By donating to mothers2mothers, you know your money goes to saving a baby from being born with aids. As little as $10 is all that’s needed to save one baby’s life.

Rather than banging on about why we really believe in this charity, we thought we would list some key facts below (and you can also watch this inspiring video):

• 240,000 children acquired HIV in 2013. That’s 1 new infection every 2 minutes.
• Each day, almost 600 children are infected with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, and without treatment, approximately half of these children will die before age two.
• The transmission of the HIV virus from a mother to her baby is almost entirely preventable!!
• The babies that have been born HIV negative through the 1.3 million plus women mothers2mothers has reached is proof of this.
• Simple and inexpensive medicines are available, and with the right support that mothers2mothers provides transmission rates of the virus can be reduced from 40% to 2%.
• Engaging women in care at all stages of pregnancy and motherhood is critical to protecting both her health and that of her baby.
• HIV positive women, ‘Mentor Mothers’, are trained, employed and empowered to work side by side with doctors and nurses in understaffed health centres as members of the healthcare team.
• Deploying mothers as frontline healthcare workers creates stronger health systems and healthier communities.
• Employing Mentor Mothers helps them gain economic security for themselves and their children.

We are excited to introduce you to this wonderful charity and look forward to working with them over the coming year. Thank you in advance for your support.