Jeanne White-Ginder
October 2009
It is with great honor Dab the AIDS Bear Project names Jeanne White-Ginder as our Dab's Angel for October 2009.
Jeanne was the mother of Ryan White who was a young HIV activist who passed in 1990 right before graduating from high school.
She has established the Ryan White Foundation, a national, nonprofit organization to increase awareness of personal, family and community issues related to AIDS, with particular assistance to hemophiliacs with the virus that causes AIDS, families caring for a relatives with AIDS and adolescents whose parents have AIDS.
She has accepted her unlikely role as a sought-after speaker and AIDS educator with grace. Though she readily admits that her grammar is poor.
"I mess up a lot when I speak," she says. "I took four F's in high school because I would not do an oral book report. So when I am with college students, I tell them I know they speak better than me. You have to speak from the heart and do not try to be someone you're not."
"This disease brings no glory to anyone," she says. "Only pain and sadness and worry. Ryan always said if you don't know about something you will be scared. At least educate yourself. So that's what I do. Not from a medical standpoint but a human standpoint. Because the best way to learn about AIDS is from human experience. Not statistics."
When Ryan was diagnosed with AIDS in 1984, Mrs. White-Ginder says, "there was absolutely no education anywhere on AIDS." She continues: "The Centers for Disease Control sent people to me 'cause I was scared myself. Being Christian, the thinking was that people deserved this disease. But we learned real fast to fight the disease and not the people."
For these and many more reasons, we are proud to announce Jeanne White-Ginder as our Dab the AIDS Bear's Angel for October 2009.
Jeanne was the mother of Ryan White who was a young HIV activist who passed in 1990 right before graduating from high school.
She has established the Ryan White Foundation, a national, nonprofit organization to increase awareness of personal, family and community issues related to AIDS, with particular assistance to hemophiliacs with the virus that causes AIDS, families caring for a relatives with AIDS and adolescents whose parents have AIDS.
She has accepted her unlikely role as a sought-after speaker and AIDS educator with grace. Though she readily admits that her grammar is poor.
"I mess up a lot when I speak," she says. "I took four F's in high school because I would not do an oral book report. So when I am with college students, I tell them I know they speak better than me. You have to speak from the heart and do not try to be someone you're not."
"This disease brings no glory to anyone," she says. "Only pain and sadness and worry. Ryan always said if you don't know about something you will be scared. At least educate yourself. So that's what I do. Not from a medical standpoint but a human standpoint. Because the best way to learn about AIDS is from human experience. Not statistics."
When Ryan was diagnosed with AIDS in 1984, Mrs. White-Ginder says, "there was absolutely no education anywhere on AIDS." She continues: "The Centers for Disease Control sent people to me 'cause I was scared myself. Being Christian, the thinking was that people deserved this disease. But we learned real fast to fight the disease and not the people."
For these and many more reasons, we are proud to announce Jeanne White-Ginder as our Dab the AIDS Bear's Angel for October 2009.
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