Stories From Viewers
Share Your Experience
Susan Bullard
Care Team Volunteer
Florence Scott
Care Team Volunteer
Rev. Deborah Warren
President & CEO, Regional AIDS Interfaith Network
David Witt
HIV Positive
Fred Wiggins
HIV Positive
Helping African Orphans with AIDS
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Interview:
Susan Bullard
Care Team Volunteer
Why do you enjoy volunteering with a care team?
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I probably love it for all the wrong reasons. One of the things I heard was you will get more than you give, and I get so much from these people, which sounds kind of self-serving but it's not. It's the kind of gift that they give me. It's gifts of the heart, friendship, it's building a relationship with somebody that you probably never would have known.
I love knowing that I make a difference in somebody else's life. I know somebody can count on me, and that's important to me that I make a difference and someone else can depend on me.
What do you do with and for your care partners?
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We meet the partner where their need is. We have three partners right now. One is a very self-sufficient man who doesn't need a lot from us. He needs a ride, he calls us, we give him a ride, and that's about the extent of that. We have a young mother of two sons who needs a little bit more support. She has other health problems including, in addition to AIDS, and she needs more support than the gentleman and we give her as much as can of what she needs. And then the third partner has just become a dear friend to all of us. He's the one who gives us so much in return, and what we give him is our friendship. He needs support. His family knows that he's living with this disease, so he has family support which is fortunate because a lot of people don't, but he does. He needs to call us and know that we're there, and that sounds so basic and so simple, but that's what we give him is just to be there.
We consider these people our brothers and sisters, and we hope they feel the same way about us. It's a relationship. It's not just us doing for them. It's a relationship and we love them and we care for them.
Was it hard not to judge your care partners or ask invasive questions?
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People are people, and the more we judge each other and the more we judge the more we drive a wedge between each other. It's not up to me to ask why any of my partners got this disease. It's important for me to help them live with it. It's important for you to know that, everybody has to know that somebody loves them and accepts them. I don't, we don't preach to any of our partners. We try to live our faith by example. Not judging them was hard to do in the beginning. You wanted to ask all the questions: How did you get this, what did you do to deserve this? They didn't do a thing to deserve this, and they don't deserve to be judged. |
