Point in case: today, mothers2mothers, along with the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation, Representatives Trent Franks, R-Ariz., Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and James McDermott, D-Wash., are announcing a new bipartisan House resolution: “Recognizing the Potential for the Virtual Elimination of Pediatric HIV and AIDS and Keeping HIV Positive Mothers Alive.”

Even greater news, you can get involved! Take the step towards eliminating pediatric AIDS by 2015 and saving mothers in honor of Mother’s Day! Find out more here and take action to support the cause.

“My father-in-law pawned the land for food,” said Kowasalya Thati. “When he returned the grain later, the land owners refused to give it back. They claimed it and we had no document to prove otherwise. For 28 years, we had to work on the land we once owned. Without land, we had nothing … not even enough food. It’s a miracle we got it back.”

But that’s not all! Landesa says there are plans to bring these barefoot lawyers to other states in the country, further expanding the organization’s impact and reach. Landesa’s India country director Gregory Rake says, “The community-based paralegal model has emerged globally as a cost-effective solution to the problem of access to justice for rural communities.” In fact, a similar scheme is already running in India’s impoverished state of Orissa and will aim to provide half a million poor families with security over their land.

“FEATURE-Barefoot lawyers bring food security to India’s tribes” [Reuters, May 2, 2012]

FAWE partnered with the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to develop a three-year program focusing on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights (ASRHR). Launched in 2010, the initiative aims to ensure that by 2013, some 10,800 adolescent girls from a total of 30 schools and close to 10,000 individuals, including teachers, in surrounding communities will have improved knowledge and skills in regards adolescent girls’ sexual and reproductive health and better access to reliable information and services on reproduction and sexuality. The program was introduced in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Zambia.

FAWE’s latest newsletter revealed the progress they’ve made:

“To date, 600 girls have received scholarships and support to remain in school and are scheduled to complete secondary school by the end of the project in 2013. … To date, 150 teachers and 125 community facilitators have been trained in ASRHR and are in turn training other teachers and community members in the target schools and communities. At school level, community members and schoolgirls are being trained in the production of reusable sanitary towels.”

Find out more about the program here.

You can also read more about FAWE and their work on our page.

But what’s even more fascinating is Yacoobi’s story! The article provided a synopsis of her amazing journey:

“Dr. Sakena Yacoobi seemed to exemplify the possibilities of the individual against great odds in the extreme. The 61-year-old from Afghanistan came to the United States as a lone teenager just out of high school in the early 1970s at the encouragement of some U.S. Peace Corps volunteers who, she said, recognized that she had potential and that it would not be fully realized in her home country. … She eventually did a master’s in public health at Loma Linda University, and later completed a doctorate in that field.”

But that’s not all!

“Along the way, she worked four jobs simultaneously at times to supplement scholarship money and in 1987, after her family escaped during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan to refugee camps in Iran, she was able to purchase a house in Michigan and sponsored 13 members of her family to the United States. Once they were settled, she took off for the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan and began collecting the women who sat idly, uneducated, into schools she founded. She’s continued to this day doing that work, under the Afghan Institute of Learning, which she founded. She said she has established hundreds of schools for girls throughout Afghanistan.”

Given the success and reach of Afghan Institute of Learning, it’s safe to say that Yacoobi is transforming communities for the better!

“Peace seekers gather on Kenyan plain” [National Catholic Reporter, April 16, 2012]

To find out more about Sakena Yacoobi and Afghan Institute of Learning, go to our page.

“Before I came to work for mothers2mothers, I was a client of the program at a clinic in Cape Town, South Africa. When I learned that I was both pregnant and HIV-positive, just sharing my story with a Mentor Mother helped to lift some of the despair and loneliness I felt. When I joined a mothers2mothers support group and learned how to keep my baby free from HIV, I decided that my story was something that I would determine on my own. And when I gave birth to a healthy baby boy, I learned how important my story had become to women who, like me, were looking for a source of hope where there seemed to be none.”

Today, Nozi is inspiring other mothers to spread the impact of mothers2mothers by sharing their own stories. Across nearly 600 m2m sites in sub-Saharan Africa, she is part of an effort that encourages women to help others by telling their stories of how the organization helped them overcome the “fear and stigma of HIV, give birth to healthy children and become role models in their communities.”

mothers2mothers was established in 2001 to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV through the education and support of pregnant women and new mothers living with HIV/AIDS. Go to their page to read more about this wonderful organization and to learn how you can help.

Maleka Begum with the cow and goat she received under the BRAC program.

A 30-year-old Bangladeshi woman Maleka Begum was among the ultra poor when she first heard about BRAC. “I have been doing manual labour, digging holes,” said Maleka. But with the help of BRAC’s asset-transfer program, she was provided with livestock and a monthly payment for two years, as well as visits from a BRAC program organizer every five days to check on her livestock, teach her about basic hygiene and give her family planning advice. Now, thanks to BRAC, Maleka is helping her family escape extreme poverty through food security, asset ownership and better education.

Today, BRAC, which celebrated its 40th anniversary earlier this year, has expanded its poverty-reduction model to other poor countries, serving more than 110 million people per year.

To find out more about 2007 Kravis Prize winner and BRAC Founder Sir Fazle Abed, go to our page.

In the video below on mothers2mothers from the Red Ribbon Foundation, she discusses the statistics and issues underlying the organization’s mission:

“There really isn’t a reason why a single baby should be born infected [with HIV] today. We have fewer babies born in the U.S., the U.K. and Europe combined in a year than in a single African clinic. It’s unacceptable and it’s unnecessary. … For us, we believe prevention is the best way to start. If we can keep babies from getting infected, we don’t have to worry about treating them later on.”

m2m may have started in Cape Town, but since then its impact has spread far and wide. It has grown to almost 700 sites across seven sub-Saharan African countries, employing more than 1,600 HIV-infected mothers to mentor over 300,000 pregnant women and new mothers each year! m2m has broadened African women’s access to not only medical care and HIV education, but also emotional support. m2m mentor Rebecca said:

“Since I joined mothers2mothers, I got employed and I get a salary. My life has changed because I’m able to look after my children, to buy whatever they want. I’m also able to look after myself … but apart from the money that I get from mothers2mothers, I also get satisfaction by working with my colleagues as a team. Because before I was isolated.”

You can learn more about 2012 Kravis Prize winner m2m on our page.

Our winners will be offering their expert advice and insights on a variety of topics including grassroots innovations for poverty alleviation, innovation in education and community engagement and much more!

Check out the live stream here and our live Twitter feed!

We’ll also be live Tweeting from the event next Wednesday, so be sure to join in on the conversation then!

In the meantime, you can get more acquainted with the Prize’s winners here.

“When you have youth who are educated and unemployed, what will they do with their lives? Either these youth become a burden on our economies or they become an engine of growth and prosperity. We want to catch them before they’re unemployed and we want to instill in them the entrepreneurial spirit and entrepreneurial skillset so that they can create their employment opportunity. We want to create excitement. What’s the best thing to do more than create the competition for entrepreneurs?”

As part of INJAZ’s goal to inspire entrepreneurship and invigorate Arab youth, the organization holds an annual competition for the best student company, which is judged by the innovativeness and profitability of the businesses. Watch the video to see how INJAZ is inspiring Arab youth to pave their own future through creative and interactive programs! You can also read PBS’ extended interview with Soraya Salti.

To find out more about Soraya Salti, check out her Kravis Prize profile.