“Volunteering isn’t something that I do – it is something that I am!” 

Suzanne is a full-time student and a single mother. She also volunteers with the Canadian Red Cross as an abuse prevention educator for school children.

Suzanne is herself a survivor of domestic abuse and a mother whose daughter was sexually assaulted. She has had to face many overwhelming hardships but has done so with strength and dignity.

She promised herself that she would never to let another family go through the same painful ordeal alone. Today, she is turning her struggle into a quest to make her community a better place.

Six years ago, Suzanne founded ‘Not my child’, a much-needed support group for families whose children have been sexually assaulted. It offers support to parents and children, as well as a court buddy programme that assists families through the judicial system.

As a trained Red Cross abuse prevention educator, Suzanne works directly with young people. Her in-depth training has enabled her to reach out to school children to raise awareness of abuse, violence and bullying/harassment prevention.

Suzanne has also coordinated ‘Speak Out! It’s more than just a game’ workshops. These help to prevent abuse and harassment in sport and are targeted at hockey coaches.

“Of my many volunteer roles in the community, being an abuse prevention educator for the Red Cross is my most fulfilling,” she says.

“Knowledge is power and I get great satisfaction knowing that when I leave a classroom full of children, they will carry with them the knowledge of what abuse is, how to get help and, most importantly, that it is not their fault.”

“The campaign was definitely a success and sensitised a lot of people, young and old, about HIV/AIDS.”

Some 300,000 people are living with HIV in the Caribbean region. About 30,000 became infected in 2005 alone. The region has been ranked by UNAIDS as the second most affected after Africa, with AIDS believed to be the leading cause of death among those aged between 15 and 44.

In Grenada, a three-month campaign involving young volunteers, called ‘Ride the BUS’, has helped to raise awareness of HIV/AIDS. In this case, ‘BUS’ stands for ‘building understanding for safety’.

Every Friday, the young volunteers visited busy bus terminals in four of the island’s regions to distribute bumper stickers, T-shirts, flyers and exercise books, all carrying an HIV/AIDS awareness message. They also set up an information booth nearby where people could find out more about HIV/AIDS and the Red Cross. There was an element of fun as visitors to the booth could pick a question from a bowl and win a T-shirt if they answered it correctly.

“Many of the older people were delighted to see young people involved in reaching out to the public about the virus,” says Cindy Lewis, a Red Cross volunteer. “One man came to the booth and congratulated them for their efforts to raise awareness. He was quite emotional because his brother had recently died of AIDS.”

On the final weekend of the campaign, the young people organised a reunion. Fifty peer educators attended and later went from house to house distributing information. The campaign wrapped up with a live concert.