Florentine is a young woman living and working in Bamenda, Cameroon. When she was 19 years old, Florentine received two pieces of good news during a visit to her physician — she was pregnant and HIV-negative. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the truth. Not only did she later find out that she was HIV-positive, but when her father-in-law discovered her status he asked Florentine to leave his home.

Florentine’s parents took her in and she received follow-up prenatal care at a health facility run by the Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Board (CBCHB), one of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation’s prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) sites. The Foundation has been working in partnership with CBCHB since February 2000.

Florentine joined a support group for people living with HIV and took nevirapine, a cost-effective intervention that has been essential in dramatically reducing mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Her baby boy, Faith, also received nevirapine soon after birth. Thanks in part to financial support from Ronald McDonald House Charities, Faith is now a healthy seven-year-old who continues to live HIV-free.

After her positive experience with CBCHB’s PMTCT program, Florentine began working at the health board as a chairperson for CBCHB’s support groups; there are now 90 of these groups throughout Cameroon with more than 3,000 members. Under Florentine’s leadership, these groups help to reduce HIV stigma in the communities where they are active. They also provide families in need with infant weaning food, important nutritional counseling, and training on specific income-generating activities.