The mother of two breaks into a broad smile as she emerges from the cramped clinic in Orchards, on the outskirts of Worcester, the  one-horse outpost owes its existence to the massive wine and fruit farms in the fertile valley.

Mtuta fires off a volley of words. ‘€œI thought you weren’€™t coming. I thought we would be too far, but I am so glad you came, I have started writing my story down, but I am not finished,’€ she says.

A Mother Mentor , Mtuta is keen to share her heartbreaking story which she has turned into an opportunity to offer hope for the mothers she comes into contact with.

‘€œIt was 5.50pm when my water broke. They gave me the nevirapine after my water broke and by 6.10pm I had given birth,’€ says Mtuta, casting her mind back to 2003.

‘€œThey tested the baby and told me she was positive and it wasn’€™t long before she started to get sick,’€ recalls Mtuta. The toddler had difficulty breathing which meant an oxygen tank was never far away, even when she was allowed to return home.

‘€œWhen she was one year and eight months, she died,’€ says Mtuta, pausing only briefly before moving onto the story of her last born, a little boy who was born in 2007.

‘€œWhoo! When they tested him for HIV they told me to come back after two weeks. I would return almost every day to check if the results had not come back yet and when they told me he was negative I was so glad. I went to my family-in-law, I called my mother and you know, at the ARV clinic they were so surprised to see my CD4 count had gone up and my viral load was almost undetectable,’€ she says.

Mtuta joined m2m last year and says she uses her life to inspire other mothers. ‘€œWhen they are sad, I make an example of me. I tell them that if you go home you must be strong and beautiful and healthy like me. I tell them that I am positive and what I have gone through, they struggle to believe that this happy woman in front of them could be HIV positive,’€ she says.

‘€œI have become a bigger, stronger person through m2m. In 2003 I had nobody to talk to, now we can help any woman. We can give them a hug and speak to them and by the time they walk through the clinic gates there is relief and they have stopped crying.’€

Mavis Lebaya (31) has been a  site co-ordinator for m2m since the programme’€™s establishment at Empilisweni Clinic in Worcester last year. Her team also serves the Rawsonville clinic and a couple of smaller clinics in the area.

Lebaya was diagnosed HIV positive in 2004 while pregnant with her second child. ‘€œMy baby was born negative, but that time nobody was telling me what it meant to be HIV positive and pregnant. It was more a case of ‘€˜Ag shame’€™, making you believe you are going to die.’€

Dressed in crisp white nurse-type uniform, Lebaya says she takes great pride in both her job and her status. ‘€œYou know when people want to gossip, I just say, ‘€˜Yes, I know my status and I am proud of it’€™.’€

‘€œI don’€™t care what others say. They will die before me and when my children are old, I will still be alive.’€

Lebaya proudly confirms that they have had only two HIV positive babies born since m2m arrived last year.’€œThe one was because the mother came to the clinic when it was too late the other mother didn’€™t come regularly,’€ she says.

And the co-operation from the healthcare workers in the clinic? ‘€œOoh, we are fine. They see us as part of the team, they tell us they need us here,’€ she says.

Lebaya is puzzled when asked how they trace mothers who don’€™t return. ‘€œOur mothers always come back. We never have issues of our mothers not wanting to take the drugs, we really very rarely have that problem,’€ she says.

Linda Mantwa Jacobs, 24, says she will never leave the m2m programme. ‘€œThey show us the way, they love us and I just wish other mothers can also come into contact with mothers2mothers.’€

‘€œWithout them my child would also have been HIV positive,’€ says the mother of a 7-month-old baby.

‘€œI want to continue with m2m, I learn so much,’€ says Jacobs, who is an enthusiastic participant in the weekly support group meeting. ‘€œI know that this virus will run up and down in my body if I ever leave my (ARV) pills, so I understand that. This disease will not kill me, I will conquer the disease,’€ says a confident Jacobs.

The two Mother Mentors working at Empilisweni Clinic see on average 20 mothers every day.