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, Lost Voices of Fentanyl

April Babcock is sitting in a cramped upstairs room in her Maryland home filled with posters and banners that are 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 wage a fight against a crisis that 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 the deadly drug.

Related: Inside Mom’s Heartbreak After 19-Year-Old Son Dies of Apparent Fentanyl Overdose: 'He Was Just a Baby'

Austen had been struggling with addiction but he didn't know that the cocaine he bought and ingested 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 to channel her pain and anger into organizing a protest in D.C.

One of the moms she grew closest to was Virginia Krieger, whose daughter Tiffany Robertson, a former American Idol semi-finalist, 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, we got pulled together," says Krieger, 59. "She's my sister in grief."

Together the two mothers, who are among PEOPLE's 2024 Women Changing the World, have rallied more than 1,800 loved ones during three annual protests at the nation's capital (their next rally will take place July 13) and are working to change laws to stop fentanyl from taking more lives.

At each of their events, they hang banners with photos of those lost. "It's to put a face to it," Krieger says. "They're 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's dying. People have become so immune to it and we're trying to wake them up."

Since Babcock launched the non-profit, Lost Voices of Fentanyl has grown to 32,000 Facebook members. But the 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.”

Related: Inside Mom’s Heartbreak After 19-Year-Old Son Dies of Apparent Fentanyl Overdose: 'He Was Just a Baby'

And it only represents a fraction of those affected by the drug. "I'm on the phone with another mom or dad every day,” says Babcock, whose son-in-law also died from the drug. “It’s nonstop.”

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

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

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

In her daughter's case, she was given a pill from a friend that was made to look like Percocet. "By itself that would not have harmed her, but it killed her," Krieger says. "If that's not a poisoning, I don't know what is. Let's not blame the victims. Whether or not they consumed it doesn't mean that they overdosed."

Related: Katy Perry, Moms Fighting Fentanyl and More: PEOPLE's 2024 Women Changing the World (Exclusive)

Both mothers say their fight can seem impossible, but, says Babcock, "people continue to die. So we can't stop."

“When we see the death toll continuing to go up, we start to feel powerless,” says Krieger. “But then we remember we’re doing it for the living. We can’t bring back our children, but we can prevent it from happening to somebody else. That keeps us moving.”

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

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