**Friday Night Walkabout Update** It was a busy and eventful evening once again for #teammww starting at 7pm and getting home at 4am. The city centre was not that busy but we found a lot of hungry and cold people and some of them came looking for us. All wishing us happy new year and some saying 2015 is going to be their year :-) Many also mentioned the Crisis Christmas event, and all got nice clothes from their pop up shop which they were so happy with and it was nice to hear them enjoying the festive period and accessing the help that is out there. As we were getting ourselves loaded up and ready for the walkabout a few of our street friends came to find us. One friend had some good news to share, that he had found a place to stay, which was great to hear as before Christmas he had been back on the streets sleeping rough and was feeling the effects of the cold. We had a large donation of Greggs vouchers organised by Jill Heslop Barclay so we gave out over 30 of those. Thanks to Jill and her friends and family for your donations. Everyone was so grateful for these and most got really excited about being able to get breakfast in the morning. Getting excited about being able to buy a hot porridge in the morning. How many of us this morning took our breakfast for granted? I know I did! Not long in to the walkabout we bumped in to a young lad we know. As soon as he spotted us he walked straight up to Jo and cuddled her. I was behind her and just saw this little face peeping out of his hood. He looked grey. I asked how he was was and he just replied cold, he didnt seem to have the energy to speak, where normally he is chatty with us. We had some flasks with us with some hot soup, so we got him sat down with a bowl and some bread. He had already been fed a little earlier, this was about getting warmed up for him. He is only a young lad. All on his own and very vulnerable to attacks. Sometimes even though we know we have still a lot more people to get to it is hard to leave someone in need of human kindness, a conversation and to feel they do matter and this was one of those times. We sat with him for a while until he was ready to go. We loaded him up with plenty food, and some more winter essentials and off he went a little bit warmer and hopefully not feeling so alone. A little further on we spotted a man looking in a bin at a pizza box. This is like something we are used to seeing in the movies but in real life its tough to see that this is actually a reality for people who are starving in our own city. Ross approached him and asked if he was ok and needed anything. He was a bit defensive and said no. We then bumped in to a few more of our friends and started getting them all a drink and some food. On seeing this the man came back over and we gave him some food and a hot chocolate. He went away to eat it and then came back to say thankyou. I felt for this man, he just looked lost. We chatted to a few of our street friends and one girl said she wanted to buy the biggest card she can find and get all of the street friends to sign it to thank mww and that she would love to be a volunteer as she already kind of does it amongst our street friends, in her words if they need a quid I will give one, if theyre are hungry and I have food I will give it to them and she pays it forward. No thankyou are needed, paying it forward is enough for us. I stood and talked to an older gentleman who was happy to receive a much needed sleeping bag. He told us about a girl who is on her own now and that he keeps an eye on her and keeps her company during the night. He spoke very passionately that no women, in any city, anywhere in the world should be homeless. He spoke about his circumstances and then said I think every person without a home should have little cards with - Im not hopeless, Im just homeless written on and then list the odd jobs/skills they could do/have and he listed a few. This blew me away, he had really thought about this. He said if he could earn just £10 a day doing odd job he could get his life back on track. We headed off and saw a familiar cheeky face who I will come back to later in the update. We then saw a lad who we had some trainers for, he was a bit down and hadnt had a good new year but was made up to get his trainers and sleeping bag. We then bumped in to our football loving street friend who asked if we can help to get him some football boots for a homeless football team! How amazing is this request!!!!! If anyone has any football boots they no longer need they will be very much appreciated!!! We then saw a few more street friends who were really happy about receiving their Greggs card and started planning what they would have for their breakfast. One lad we met, had been told we were walking around by another street friend and had came looking for us. We him gave a rucksack and sleeping bag too. When I looked at his shoes I could of cried. They were falling off his feet. He said a kind man had bought him them last year. Seeing the state of his shoes and how cold his feet were we gave him more socks and took a special request for this week and arranged to meet him. We also met a lad who had been kicked out on boxing day and had nothing. He has been on and off the streets for 16 years. He is 31 so from being a teenager. Sad to hear he found himself back on the streets at Christmas time. We then saw an older gentleman who we sat and spoke with for a while, he started telling us about this lovely lady he had met on Tuesday called Nicola, who was an accountant and who had got him a hot drink and food. Who had taken the time to chat with him. I knew instantly this was my friend. Niki, you really made a difference in this mans day or even week! To still be talking about the kindness you gave him days later. This gave us big grins, to know the kindness is spreading. At this point we had quite a gathering and some new faces appeared and we were able to provide them with rucksacks and sleeping bags. We then headed to check the doorway from last week and found the cheeky face of our street friend who we had seen earlier on that night. When we had seen him earlier he never mentioned he needed a sleeping bag but we saw how thin the one he was sleeping in was so he got a nice thick one to hopefully be a bit warmer. He is a right joker this lad and we always leave smiling and he does too. By this point we had ran out of hot water and once again many thanks to the street pastors who let us fill up and rest our legs for a few minutes while the kettle boiled. We then had another occasion of a street friend mentioning a kind act on new years eve by a lad and his fiance who have donated before to mww. Again I guessed who it was and Graham Ford and fiance thankyou, you made our street friends new years eve by stopping and talking to him on your night out. He is so used to being ignored that your kindness was still with him days later. We then headed along Collingwood Street and as we were passing Madame Koos a street friend was also passing and a couple of members of the public started to speak to him. The bouncer swore at him and said extremely disgusting comments about our street friend and to the couple. To which the lovely man took him to one side and said to her he is my guest. During this one of our team members had approached to make sure everything was ok, the bouncer was then aggressive to her. What sickened us even further is that the other door staff were laughing and then shortly after the two kind souls who helped this guy were refused entry. Refused entry in to a bar for being kind? We had a great chat with this very kind and compassionate couple, Andrew & Kerry thank you so much for your donation, your kindness and compassion...Its nice to be nice! Lets hope the door staff of Madame Koos are never down on their luck and get treat that way. We are all humans and no one is better than anyone else. We then checked further past central station and by this point it was after 2am so the city was starting to quieten down and we saw a few more hungry and cold souls. As we were heading back we spotted a man laying on the ground, when we approached he was in distress and had pains in his chest and difficulty breathing. Emergency services were called and hopefully he will be fit and well by now. What saddened me was that there were people walking and driving past this man and no one stopped to help. Im just glad we were in the right place at the right time. Finally after assisting this gentleman we bumped in to a few more of our street friends who had been looking for us all night. They know where we park our cars and had waited nearly an hour to see us and had left a note on one of our cars. We got them what they needed and were over the moon with their vouchers with the young girl excited about the prospect of porridge for breakfast. So an eventful evening with mixed emotions, from hearing about amazing kindness to hearing people speak to our street friends like they are animals. All in all there is a lot more kindness out there than negative people and it is spreading!!!! Lets keep up the great work and just be kind to people. Smile, chat, listen. All people really need, all any of us need is to be heard, to feel that we belong and that we are cared for. Non of which costs money. #itsnicetobenice #kindness #payitforward #onelove #opsafewinter #teammww #rosscan
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 19:00:53 +0000
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