Project Name: Healthy Mother Equals Healthy Baby.

Project Duration: It has no timeline and has been there for almost 20 years.

Funding Agency/ Donor: Gladstar Ministry. Through Stella Lowe in United States.

Project Goal: To help pregnant and lactation mothers living with HIV get nutritional support.

Project Objectives: To see both the mother and the baby healthy and also help the mother with viral suppression.

Target population: Pregnant and lactation mothers living with HIV.

Implementation Area: Ga East District in Accra, Ghana

Project Target: HIV Positive Pregnant women and lactating mothers

Key Project Actors: GladStar Ministry USA, STAR Ghana Giving for Change Matching Fund, IHCC, WAAF, Nutritionists and Psychologists and Children of Participants.

 

Volunteers: Interns of WAAF and IHCC

Key Areas for the Intervention: Health and Nutritional Education 

Antiretroviral Drug Education.

The Healthy Mother Equals Healthy Baby (HM=HB) project has been ongoing for over a decade with support from the GladStar ministry in the USA. This program has educated and supported pregnant and lactating women living with HIV who receive care at the International Health Care Centre (IHCC). In November 2022, the STAR Ghana matching fund joined the Gladstar ministry to collaboratively fund this project. This has enabled us to increase coverage of beneficiaries.
The program includes periodic meetings where, nurses, nutritionists, psychologists and other professionals give talks to lactating mothers and pregnant women about nutritious, yet cost-effective eating habits for a healthy, yet inexpensive lifestyle. They are also taught the importance of keeping their surroundings clean to avoid environmentally borne illnesses for mother and child as well as educated on psychological topics pertaining to HIV, pregnancy and being HIV positive and pregnant. Pregnant women also enjoy the opportunity to learn from breastfeeding mothers in preparation towards safe delivery of their babies HIV free, healthy, and strong. These lessons continue all the way to the postpartum period, preparing them to provide proper care to their infants to ensure both mother and child stay healthy and strong. As part of these activities, Q and A sessions allow for participants to ask health workers questions and get answers to any concerns they might have. The beneficiaries also get the opportunity to share their ideas and problems and then deliberate on solutions to issues that are common to them.
The Healthy Mother equals Healthy baby monthly meetings are considered a form of support group opportunity since all the beneficiaries are persons living with HIV. Importantly, this meeting together provides a safe space where stigma of any kind is not tolerated. Each time beneficiaries meet, they are sent home with nutritious food items put together by a nutritionist and which consists of items like eggs, rice, oil, milo, milk, fruits and vegetables. These food items not only assist the direct beneficiaries but goes a long way to support their other household members including children which helps reduce economic burdens almost all of them face.