Recently, MJ student Kristina Partsinevelos and a group of undergraduate students participated in the 5 Days for the Homeless initiative. Partsinevelos wrote the following piece about her experiences.
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It’s very difficult to imagine what it is like to be homeless without experiencing it firsthand. So I tried to be homeless. The only thing that separated my body from the cold dirty snow in March was a sleeping bag and empty cardboard boxes from a nearby dumpster.
I wasn’t kicked out of my home and I didn’t run out of money. Instead, several Carleton undergraduate students and I chose to be homeless for five days. This choice was based on an attempt to raise awareness of the plight of homeless youth, who do not have the option to go back home. Their home is the streets.
Every year in March, university students across Canada try to emulate the lives of homeless people to the best of their ability by sleeping outside for five nights regardless of the temperature. This year, 24 universities participated simultaneously for 5 Days for the Homeless from March 11th to the 16th to raise money for local homeless youth charities. All proceeds raised at Carleton went to Operation Come Home.
We did not shower, we did not change our clothes and we did not purchase anything – including food. Even with a donated tarp and sleeping bags, I barely slept the first few nights. With the heavy wind slapping the tarp (which blew off one night around 2:30 a.m. and woke us all up), rain and the fact that I slept next to strangers like a can of sardines, the experience made me yearn for my comfortable bed. However, by day five, these strangers became my friends and I fell asleep as soon as I hit the damp sleeping bag.
During those five days, whenever I was not in class, I was outside raising money. With the coin jingling from our cans, the volunteers and I would ask every single student or teacher for spare change. After being outside for hours on end, it became tiresome so we tried to get creative. We offered compliments for all those who donated or I would say phrases such as: “Welcome to my bedroom” or “Help get kids off the street and back on their feet” to get people’s attention.
Since I’ve been organizing this campaign for the past five years, I know to expect an uncomfortable sleep, an unpredictable eating schedule and greasy hair. However, for the other first time volunteers it was somewhat of a shock to be blatantly ignored by people who were only a foot away. It makes one wonder if the real homeless have just become accessories to our environment. When was it that we stopped noticing them?
The one thing many people did notice was our celebrity guest sleeper Justin Trudeau. He joined us at Carleton to help raise money and partake in the experience. And yes, he slept under the tarp with just a sleeping bag like the rest of us. The dean of the business school also joined for one night while another professor held his entire office hours at our camp. These are just small examples of the support we received from the school.
Despite the lack of sleep and timbits for breakfast every single day, I was thoroughly impressed by the generosity of the students. Aren’t students the ones fighting for lower tuition fees and cheaper bus passes? And yet, the majority of the $10,200 raised for Operation Come Home was from the very people who have little financial stability. It just goes to show that literally every penny does count. And we sure did roll a lot of pennies each night.
Throughout the years that I’ve been involved with this campaign, I’ve heard horrifying stories from homeless people about bankruptcy, depression, and sexual abuse, to name a few. Unfortunately, many who experience these events are unable to overcome them, so they turn to a life on the streets.
I was even more surprised to hear from several Carleton students who were once homeless or lived in their cars. It just goes to show that homelessness can happen to any of us and not just dysfunctional or poverty-stricken families. I’ve learned we should not assume we know the reasons as to why someone is on the streets. Everyone has a story and the homeless are no different.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012 in Grad Student blogs, News
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