Africa: Pumulo

Last year, Pumulo Sipatonyana, 37, was the first mother to enter the Mother and Infant Care Program, run by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word in Mongu Zambia. The program provides free infant formula to HIV Positive mothers who have never breast fed their children in hopes of reducing mother to infant HIV transmission. Pumulo found out she was HIV positive when she was pregnant with Naomi, now 1, and was able to join the program before Naomi’s birth. When Pumulo’s husband found out she was HIV positive he left her, taking their other daughter with him. Now, she is on anti-retroviral drugs and raising her children alone. Naomi was recently tested for HIV, the result: negative.