TED Talk Analysis: Mothers helping mothers fight HIV

In July 2010 at the Tedglobal conference, Mitchell Besser gave an eye-opening  speech about the growing tragedy of AIDS in Sub-Saharan Africa. He utilizes multiple speaking techniques such as well placed statistics and meaningful eye-contact to maximize the impact of his speech.

Besser opens with this shocking picture to capture the audience's attention.

Going into the speech, the audience had most likely heard of the AIDS virus, and they probably know that there are certain parts of Africa that are worse off than others, but beyond that they don't know a lot of the specifics. They expect the speaker to explain the topic and important details about Mothers2Mothers, the program he started. The speaker does a very good job in the intro to set up the problem and the reasons why it hasn't been getting any better.
He talks about how in America, when AIDS started becoming more and more common, we developed a way to ensure that pregnant mothers that were HIV positive did not give birth to HIV positive babies. They cut the infection rate by birth to less than 2%. However, he compares that statistic to poorer third-world countries, where the rate at which the virus is passed from mother to child is at 40%.

Besser uses emotional appeal with this image of a sick child combined with the startling statistic.

After presenting this problem, he begins to describe the reason for this. Besser explains that in these problem areas of Africa, there are very few nurses and doctors compared to an overwhelming number of victims. Besser states, "The truth is sub-Saharan Africa has 24 percent of the global disease burden and yet only three percent of the world's health care workers." This leads to very brief contact between doctors and nurses and their patients. So even though there have been medical breakthroughs that can improve victims' and their children's lives, there is not enough time for these tests and treatments to be done.
He also explains the stigma around the virus that leads mothers who are diagnosed with it feeling alone and not knowing what to do because if they tell their families/husbands they will be out on the street. This causes women to not take their medication because they don't want anyone to know of their illness.

Besser explains these women in Africa need more than just Meds.

I feel like the speaker found the perfect transition point after setting up the problem to introducing his solution, Mothers2Mothers. He asks the audience to imagine that they are pregnant women in Africa that have just received the horrible news that they have the AIDS virus. This causes the audience to put themselves in these women's shoes, which leads to empathy. Normally, he says, you would be left to go home alone feeling like there was nothing you could do, you and your baby have received a death sentence. The speaker takes this time to introduce his organization. He changes the story to after you have been diagnosed, a nurse takes you to a room where a lady welcomes you and says, "Welcome to mothers2mothers. Have a seat. You're safe here. We're all HIV-positive. You're going to be okay. You're going to live. Your baby is going to be HIV-negative." He explains that this would give the new, scared mother a support group of women who have all been in her situation before and are all there to help each other.
This addresses both problems he has described, which makes for a very appealing solution to the audience.
Another aspect of Mitchell Besser's TED Talk that makes his speech effective is his facial expressions. It is obvious from his face that he truly cares about this topic and is passionate about helping these women.

Besser's facial expression demonstrates how much he cares.

In conclusion, Mitchell Besser gives a very informative speech on the topic of AIDS in Sub Saharan Africa. His organization of ideas, emotion evoking photos, and passionate facial expressions all comet together to leave the audience having more knowledge of AIDS in Africa and supporting his program Mothers2Mothers. The only thing I would change about his deliver would be more change of inflection in his voice, that would make it more audibly appealing. I highly suggest you take the time to watch the full video here: