This World AIDS Day has taken on a new meaning after spending my year in Cape Town working with mothers2mothers. This astonishing organization which supports and integrates women living with HIV is at the frontlines fighting this scourge. I merely support their work, and I work for them.

Every day they are meeting women who have just received information that is beyond life altering. Try to imagine the feeling of going in for pre-natal care with the suspicion that you are pregnant and also be told that you are HIV-positive.

New clients arrive at our door confused, scared, and vulnerable---with a million questions swirling around their heads. Am I going to die? Will my child die? Did my partner give this to me? Will I be ostracized from my community? How will I live? How will I go on?

To meet another mother who can simply say “I’m HIV-positive, I am healthy, my child is negative and we are going to get through this. Please come in” is a powerful and magic interaction that begins a new life.

For people to believe the fight against HIV is over is wrong. Here, it has only just begun.

Treatments are available and distributed but moving a person from a diagnosis to a pill requires much more space than allowed on a medicine bottle. To effectively treat our clients requires dialogue, communication and trust. Every year 1 million people globally go on treatment, but another 2 million die from AIDS. There’s no way to “treat” ourselves out of this disease. We must prevent new infections at every step. And a newborn child is a great start.

Further compounding issues in resource poor countries is the fact that the incredibly overburdened healthcare system cannot cope with treatment demands. Today the WHO released guidelines stating the appropriate time to put people on ARV treatment is earlier than at present. People with CD4 counts of 350 will now be instructed to start medications for life, up from 250 in the past. What does this mean? There are even more people to reach for treatment and integrate into the system, that is already under delivering on previous guidelines.

To reach these standards requires us to mobilize in ways we never thought possible. Using innovative thinking to prevent every new infection and also to connect in a meaningful way with those already infected is truly the only way we will see our way out.

mothers2mothers is focused on reaching the 1.4 million women living with HIV who will give birth in a year.  Through mother-to-child transmission of HIV, 340,000 new infections occur every year and 91% are based in sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly all of these incidences can be reduced to less than 2% as it has in the US and Europe by simple doses of medications and proper feeding and education. The resources are available but the resource mobilization and effective implementation are what is missing. And this is where mothers2mothers comes in.

The program is simple and replicable. At the frontline of care, mothers2mothers has organized, trained, employed and integrated an amazing workforce of over 1500 women living with HIV, into the health care system to deliver life-saving education and support. There, daily work for everyone involved becomes not only life-saving but life-changing.

The women simply come and gather in a place where they meet other HIV-positive mothers and mothers-to-be. They talk about disclosure techniques, treatment options, exclusive feeding methods, safer sex practices, healthy living and through this empowerment learn how to live a life of positive living.

It’s no secret that to save a mother is to save a family. Giving a place to replenish and learn allows these women to navigate the daunting gauntlet of their diagnosises. Imagine the joy and fulfillment of giving birth to an HIV-negative child. This is the magic that creates a ripple effect of change. A mother is bolstered to maintain her health so she can raise her family. She is sustained by a newfound belief that she can dream again, and give guidance to ensure her child stays healthy for life.

Every mother dreams of a better life for her child and its no different here in Africa. Finding a dream again of hope and moving on is what makes these women different. Courage through adversity, fierce determination to create a better world for their child and themselves and collective perseverance to find a place again in a world that has written them off.

I proudly work for these women. If they have taught me anything it is that any problem, no matter how huge, can be solved when we reach out to someone. The trick is finding the right place to reach out, and in mothers2mothers our clients have found a place to create their new life amongst a sisterhood of mothers.

This WORLD AIDS DAY, I will remember the 21 million who have died from this disease, I will salute the 33 million living with HIV. I will take hope in the 300,000 clients enrolled this year at mothers2mothers who have met our Mentor Mothers and together are creating a better life for themselves and their child.

I will remember my friends who are no longer here. And in their memory, I have hope for the women of Africa.