As a farmer's son in rural Ireland, his passion for traveling roads less traveled found Pat Mc Mahon lost in a slum area in the city of Varanasi, Northern India.

 Walking through the narrow streets, someone caught his eye. Pat met a child that would change the rest of his life. Tiza, only a baby, was literally dying of malnutrition. Desperate, he immediately took her to a private hospital close by to get her critical care. At that moment, the project began and Tiza’s life was saved. Within days he founded the charity that is now known as Mothers First by renting 10 beds permanently from the private children's hospital that was treating Tiza.

From 2004 until 2013, Mothers First provided treatment of severe malnutrition in the hospital. At this point, treatment switched to a preemptive approach in which nutrition was prioritized at a community level. The project was the first in the city to be given local government approval to treat malnutrition in the villages with ‘Ready to eat food’ (RUTF). For the first time, the project had no walls.

In the villages, it became clear that that malnutrition had its origins in the unborn babies whose mothers were malnourished. In 2015, the project began targeted nutrition to mothers. Nourished mothers mean nourished babies. The success of the maternal nutrition program has led to preventing and not just treating malnutrition.

Mothers First is what we have become

Our story doesn’t end with community based nutrition projects. Mothers First seeks to be a voice for the voiceless. In 2015, Pat was in a village on a food distribution mission. He was asked to go see a mother who was reported to be unwell. Bending down to enter the hut, Pat found a fragile mother helplessly looking over her two children. The entire family was dying of malnutrition. Pat immediately sprung into action and began to assess their needs. However, on an emotional level, Pat was shaken.

When he left the hut, he fell to his knees and was overcome with the question: why this was allowed to happen in our world? He swore to himself to do whatever he could in his power to see a change in the world. Within two months, he attended his first international global conference on nutrition in Milan Italy. He hasn’t slowed down since, and has faithfully fought to give a voice to the voiceless.

Advocacy is at our forefront, as we fight for focus to be given to maternal nutrition in global nutrition targets and in the Sustainable Development Goals as outlined by the United Nations.