Removing divisions of HIV
![Maria Isabel Guzmán works for Puerta Abierta (Open Door), which provides home-based holistic healthcare for people with HIV [CAFOD]](/var/storage/images/about-cafod/where-we-work/honduras/images/maria-isabel-guzman-works-for-puerta-abierta-open-door-/805368-1-eng-GB/maria-isabel-guzman-works-for-puerta-abierta-open-door-_1column50_nospace_landscape.jpg)
Maria Isabel Guzmán talks about how her personal journey with HIV has helped her better understand the needs and emotions of those she helps cope with the illness for Puerta Abierta (Open Door) in Honduras
When Maria took the first difficult step to face up to her own HIV diagnosis by joining a self-help programme, little could she have dreamed that it would be the start of a long - but extremely fulfilling - journey to helping others.
For me, this has been a great opportunity for personal development, and I also wanted to help other people in the same situation as myself
Now, five years later, she finds herself supporting many families through their own traumas and crises as they struggle to come to terms with HIV in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
Working for Puerta Abierta (Open Door), which provides home-based holistic healthcare for people with HIV, Maria makes home visits to individuals and their families.
Greater insight
She says: "I had the experience of going on ART and so I could work with greater insight with others going through this - I could guide and support them.
"For me, this has been a great opportunity for personal development, and I also wanted to help other people in the same situation as myself."
"Before, I saw many of my companions die and this is still painful to recall, but now very few die.
"However, even one such death is one too many."
Puerta Abierta also supports a self-help group of people living with HIV, as well as programmes for whole communities affected by HIV - offering medical, psycho-social, spiritual and material support within a community context.
Maria's colleague Manuel Botet Caridad says that having people living with HIV on the team helps break down barriers and removes divisions of “them and us”.
He says: "We all work together without stopping to find out who has HIV and who doesn’t. The whole team - all of whom are women - works together to tackle so many issues of poverty and injustice of which HIV is one piece.
"This draws the team closer to the reality of HIV and that of poverty.
"Maria obviously has greater affinity with those she visits at home, and more easily gets closer to them because she has gone through the same experiences, the same treatments, the same health and emotional crises."
"I wish we had more people living with HIV on the team!"
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![Karen, 13, edits a magazine for children affected by HIV in Honduras [CAFOD]](/var/storage/images/about-cafod/where-we-work/honduras/images/karen-13-edits-a-magazine-for-children-affected-by-hiv-in-honduras/807302-2-eng-GB/karen-13-edits-a-magazine-for-children-affected-by-hiv-in-honduras_0column75_nospace_landscape.jpg)
