Shombi Ellis & Millicent Magwa

Episode 1: Johnson & Johnson Centre for Health Worker Innovation presents ‘The Point of Care Around the World’in association with The Conduit

This year, The Conduit has partnered with the Johnson & Johnson Center for Health Worker Innovation to create a podcast series that explores the meaning of care in different communities around the world. From physicians to directors, community workers to advocates, we will be talking to individuals on the ground to discover answers to the question, “what is the point of care?”

In this episode Paul is joined by two inspiring women who play different roles within the organization mothers2mothers. Mothers2mothers employs women living with HIV as community health workers called Mentor Mothers. They work at health facilities and provide at-home care to deliver life-changing health services to women, children, adolescents and entire families across ten African countries. What started as just HIV care, mothers2mothers’ services have expanded to include more integrated care for patients with chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension. In many cases, these conditions are both more prevalent and more dangerous for people living with HIV, so this new approach allows mothers2mothers to continue their important HIV care while also expanding their model into new areas.

Paul is first joined by Shombi Ellis. Shombi is both Country Director of mothers2mothers South Africa and Chief of Party for RISE II. Paul’s second guest in today’s episode is Millicent Magwa. After her own journey with HIV Millicent was motivated to join mothers2mothers two years ago. In her current role, Millicent goes door-to-door in her community, delivering care to prevent and treat HIV in adults and children, and provides additional services to identify and manage non-communicable diseases, which are a growing health issue for those living with HIV.