Dear Sara, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Hello everyone, today I am going to tell you a little bit about myself. I am Sara Bulatovic. I am disabled. I have cerebral palsy, which limits me in my daily life, I have to use the wheelchair everyday to get  out and get to places. But I still see myself as a normal person even though I have a disability.

How you get along with your peers? Would you say that your life is different than the life of your friends and in which way?

I see myself, compare to my friends as I am a normal person like them. The difference is that I use the wheelchair. Everything else is mostly the same. We like the same things, like music, same subjects. We have similar interests because we are mostly the same age group.

When was the first time you experienced volunteering and how would you describe it?

I have been volunteering for a couple of years. I first started doing the volunteer work for ACT Foundation in 2014. I went to a teenage shelter to do a soup kitchen, for street children. Even since then I have been volunteering at every soup kitchen that ACT Foundation does in South Africa. That gives me more purpose of my life, to help other people.

As someone who got used to live with the help of other people, what was the feeling of being able to help others?

I feel a relief when I help others because it shows me that I am the same like them. It is the real freedom to be able to help others, because you see you are the same like other people.

Do you have role models and what do you appreciate about them?

I am motivated by Pieter Du Preez. He is paralised man. He became paralised in bike accident a few years ago. Since then, he also uses the wheelchair every day to get around to places. Being in the wheelchair doesn’t stop him doing what he likes. He does the sport called Ironman and shows people what can you achieve in life, no matter if you are paralized or not. And he actually does a regular job in his everyday life, he is a actuarial analyst. He works with numbers on a daily basis, in a normal office. And he actually drives a car like normal people. So those are the reasons why I admire him so much.

What is your message to people who feel powerless and what to bring positive change in their life?

People who have challenges in their life must not let challenges bring them down. They need to know that they are more then their challenges. People can do in their life whatever they want. They just need to believe in that. They must go with what makes them feel comfortable.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.