This story appears in the Notes from the Field feature series. View the full series.

by Bridgid O'Brien

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Notes from the Field - I have been an international Good Shepherd Volunteer in Nong Khai, Thailand, for the past year, working with an organization led by the order of Good Shepherd Sisters ministering here to provide care, resources and income-generating opportunities for individuals affected and infected with HIV/AIDS.

Being a young religious sister means you represent a lot of things to a lot of people. You are an anomaly; you are the image of a teacher/counselor/nurse/confidant/relative from the past; you are a beacon of hope or a bearer of harsh realities. You come to embody the church. And, whether you like it or not, you will be called upon, time and time again, to represent issues and viewpoints much larger than yourself. 

Bridgid O’Brien is an international Good Shepherd Volunteer in Nong Khai, Thailand, working with an organization that provides care, resources and income-generating opportunities for individuals affected and infected with HIV/AIDS. A native of Boston, Massachusetts, she holds a B.A. in psychology from Boston College, where she was a dedicated four-year member of the Irish Dance Team and a staff writer and editor for the online college magazine, Her Campus Boston College.

Georgia Perry is a journalist originally from Indianapolis. She has written for regional papers throughout the western United States as well as national magazines including The Atlantic, CityLab, and Narratively. She loves writing stories about people living life on their own terms. 

Dominican Sr. Sue Gardner is not Native American, but she has had a love for native people since she was a child, and has worked closely with them for the past eight years. Now she is the director of the Native American Apostolate for the diocese of Gaylord, Michigan, and the pastoral administrator of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha Parish in Suttons Bay, Michigan, about 20 miles northwest of Traverse City.

by Melanie Lidman

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Sr. M. Ivanna B. Ennemoser knows how to make a budget stretch. Ennemoser runs the Kariobangi Cheshire House for the Aged, which serves destitute and disabled elderly people in Nairobi, Kenya. The home is on the edge of an urban slum called Korogocho, where more than 700,000 people live in hastily erected shacks crowded into muddy alleyways. With less than $4,000 per month, Ennemoser cares for 35 heavily disabled live-in residents and provides twice-weekly lunches for 240 more people who suffer from diseases such as leprosy and HIV/AIDS.

This story appears in the Notes from the Field feature series. View the full series.

by Angela Mahoney

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Notes from the Field - St. John Bosco says, “it is not enough that you love the young, they must know they are loved.” This is the mission of the Salesian sisters: to love and to educate youth. In my last year of college, I went on the Catholic Volunteer Network website, where I found a program, VIDES, that looked promising and also had its main office located in the town I was living in. Everything started from there.