Two Moms Who Became 'Sisters in Grief' After Losing Kids to Fentanyl Now Fight 'For the Living' (Exclusive)

April Babcock and Virginia Krieger want to save other families from their pain with their advocacy group, Fentanyl’s Lost Voices

April Babcock sits in a cramped upstairs room of her Maryland home filled with posters and banners covered with the faces of those who have died from fentanyl.

“This is my war room,” Babcock, 51, tells PEOPLE. It’s where she and her advocacy organization, Lost Voices of Fentanyl, are leading the fight against a crisis that has killed more than 112,000 people in 2023 alone.

But just over five years ago, it was the bedroom of her son, Austen, before she lost him to a deadly drug.

April Babcock’s son, Austen, who died in 2019.

April Babcock

Inside mom’s heartbreak after 19-year-old son dies of apparent fentanyl overdose: ‘He was just a baby’

Austen struggled with addiction, but he didn’t know that the cocaine he bought and drank one night in January 2019 contained fentanyl. He died at the age of 25.

In the months that followed, Babcock reached out to other families going through similar losses and began channeling her pain and anger into organizing protests in D.C.

One of the moms she became closest to was Virginia Krieger, whose daughter is Tiffany Robertson, ex American Idol semifinalist, died in 2015 after a friend gave her a pill she thought was Percocet to help with back pain. The pill contained fentanyl, and Tiffany died at the age of 26, leaving behind two children.

“It was like a magnet, drawing us together,” says Krieger, 59. “She’s my sister in grief.”

Daughter of Virginia Krieger Tiffany Robertson.

Virginia Krieger

Together, the two mothers, who are among PEOPLE 2024 women changing the world, have gathered more than 1,800 loved ones during three annual protests in the capital (their next rally will be held on July 13) and are working to change the law to prevent the use of fentanyl taking more lives.

At each of his events, he hangs banners with photographs of the lost. “It’s to put a face on it,” says Krieger. “These are not just numbers. These are children, these are infants, these are mothers, fathers, doctors, lawyers, friends, daughters, sons. This is our future and our future is dying. People have become so immune to it and we are trying to wake.”

Since Babcock started the nonprofit, Lost Voices of Fentanyl has grown to 32,000 Facebook members. But that number is nothing to be proud of, says Krieger: “When we grow, it means more loss, more suffering, more families and children going through this.”

Inside mom’s heartbreak after 19-year-old son dies of apparent fentanyl overdose: ‘He was just a baby’

And it represents only a part of those who were affected by the drug. “Every day I’m on the phone with a different mom or dad,” says Babcock, whose son-in-law also died from drugs. “It’s non-stop.”

For more inspiring stories from PEOPLE’s Women Changing the World award winners, pick up the March 11 issue, on newsstands Friday.

The lost voices of fentanyl mothers Virginia Krieger (left) and April Babcock.

Virginia Krieger

Among the group’s priorities: tougher penalties for distribution in cases of death or injury (Babcock is testifying before the Maryland state legislature this month on two related bills); creating a federal requirement that the opioid antidote Narcan be as readily available in public spaces as fire extinguishers; and closing a loophole that allows small international packages that could contain fentanyl to bypass customs.

They are also working to change the language used to describe victims of the crisis. “We refuse to use the word ‘overdose,'” says Krieger. “These are poisonings. Any time a person hides or conceals a harmful substance for another person to consume without knowledge or intent, and that causes harm or injury, that is by definition poisoning.”

In her daughter’s case, a friend gave her a pill that looked like Percocet. “It wouldn’t have harmed her by itself, but it killed her,” says Krieger. “If that’s not poisoning, I don’t know what is. Let’s not blame the victims. Whether they consumed it or not doesn’t mean they overdosed.”

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Both mothers say their fight may seem impossible, but, Babcock says, “people keep dying. So we can’t stop.”

“When we see the death toll continue to rise, we start to feel helpless,” says Krieger. “But then we remember that we do this for a living. We can’t bring our children back, but we can prevent this from happening to someone else. That drives us.”

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the SAMHSA Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.

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Source: HIS Education