This Sunday is Mother’s Day, and in honor of this important holiday, moms around the world will be showered with gifts and appreciation for their love and tireless work. But shouldn’t mothers be honored every day? Moms feed us, encourage us and care for our health before we’re even aware of its value.

This past week, I had the fortunate opportunity to meet several moms during my trip to Honduras with the END7 campaign. At health clinics in Tegucigalpa, El Triunfo and Marcovia, I saw moms who were placing their children’s health above all else. Despite the lengthy lines, the 95 degree heat and the long walks to the local clinics, these moms were determined to provide their children with the much-needed deworming medicine that rids their bodies of harmful parasitic worms.

I saw mothers soothing their children as they struggled to swallow the deworming medicine.

I saw mothers laughing and smiling with their children – celebrating their health.

And I saw mothers who were proud – holding their children up for the rest of the clinics’ visitors to see.

The children and mothers I met in Honduras were happy and thriving because of the deworming medicine and vaccines provided to them by local health clinics. Treating NTDs can positively impact the health of mothers and their children by reducing anemia, improving nutrition and strengthening a mother or child’s immune system so they are able to fight off other diseases. But without deworming medicine, mothers and their children are susceptible to a variety of health complications and a poor, unfulfilled quality of life.

So this Mother’s Day, take a moment to thank you mom for all she’s done to keep you healthy, and take another for moms around the world who are contributing to the fight against NTDs.