Tonight we're doing an event called Cardboard Box City. Essentially, we all get together in a yard in a really safe town, sit around a fire, and make airtight boxes for ourselves out of pieces of cardboard and duct tape already provided for us. Snacks and beverages will be available, I am sure. And although we won't sleep well tonight in our sleeping bags and winter gear, tomorrow morning we can all go back to our houses and sleep in our wonderfully warm beds and make cocoa, applauding ourselves for the good work we just did.
I know the motives behind this event are pure- I myself was a coordinator of this event for two years and I truly do want to give people a glimpse of what it's like to be homeless as well as raise awareness for homelessness worldwide. While we did it in main street where we were a little more visible and even had cans thrown at us once, it still isn't ANYTHING compared to what homeless people go through. The homeless have few or none of these conveniences. They don't have a warm bed to look forward to or cocoa in the morning. They can't just duck inside a house in the middle of the night if they are getting too cold. They haven't been given the supplies or the area in which to make cardboard homes. They often do not get to sleep through the night due to violence or policing.
But what if they did have a home to go to when it was cold out? What if it was your home? What if you made cocoa for them in the morning, helped them find a job and taught them how to save money?
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