Hazim (left) and his client.

Hazim Al-bustani
District 2 Recording Secretary

I started my career in home care as my mother’s IHSS provider in 2009. I loved the amount of energy my mom had when I was her caregiver. She felt strong, powerful, and independent. I was always afraid to put her in a nursing home, because I didn’t think they could guarantee my mom would get the type of individual care I could give her at home. IHSS helped keep my family together. My mom passed away in 2012, but I decided to continue my work as an in-home caregiver.

I believe in IHSS, but I really believe in our union. I got involved because I believe together we’re able to work hard for providers and care recipients. There are people who don’t care as much about IHSS, and people want to destroy programs like it. If we don’t stand up and protect the program, who will?

Being a home care provider is my job, and I know that many providers would agree that without it, we would have no income or way to pay our bills. That’s why it’s so important to work together to make UDW even stronger. We need to show our elected leaders that no one can mess with the IHSS program, and we do that by growing our collective voice.