Showing posts with label homelessness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homelessness. Show all posts

This man is on a mission to help feed homeless people in Scotland

Https%3a%2f%2fblueprint-api-production.s3.amazonaws.com%2fuploads%2fcard%2fimage%2f86033%2fscottish_man_feeding_homeless_header

LONDON — A 24-year-old man from Edinburgh in Scotland is launching a campaign to try and feed as many homeless people as possible.
Last Friday, fast-food worker Robert Aitken bought 60 burgers and went out onto the streets of Edinburgh to give them to the people he found sleeping rough.

SEE ALSO: 7 unique challenges homeless women face — and what you can do to help
A photo of Aitken — who apparently works over 60 hours a week — was shared on Facebook by Mat Bryant.
"He pays for this from his own pocket and asks for nothing in return," Bryant said. The post has been shared almost 80,000 times since it was uploaded on Saturday.
Aitken himself also took to Facebook to tell his story, and to link to a JustGiving page he's set up in an attempt to raise £500 ($721) for local homeless people.

Here's Aitken's story in full.

Finally heading home from Edinburgh after my very first feeding the homeless ambition. Going into McDonalds and spending £70 of my own cash in order to see these HUMAN BEINGS fight on one more day, I met so many amazing people with so many amazing, humorous and some horrible stories about these people. You luve lifes off luxury compared to these himans that face a day to day challenge to stay alive. 3 hours I have been out and I am freezing, I cannot imagine how they last the cold nights out there.
I met a man named Davie, his story hit my heart the most. He had been serving his country for 13 years and had to leave because he had ptsd. Coming back to civilization after so many years at war wasn't easy for him. He began to break down, a grown man breaking down because he has nothing. I became overwhelmed and began to cry myself. I hugged him and said your not alone. These small words can change someones thoughts about life and the future. Also giving them some food gives them that bit of hope that there is decent human beings out there. My mission when I set out was to get a smile on skmeones face and I feel I have achieved this with every person I spoke to tonight.
My only ask of this post is to simply look differently at homeless people. They are human beings. The have got feelings. They want the same as everyone else, to live a life of happiness. A simple gesture of me sitting sleaking with them, hugging, crying and laughing with them has left me feeling amazing that I have impacted so many people. I started out with 60 cheeseburgers, some fries and a few bottles of water and some cups.
I have set up a funding page to help with the financial side of things. I would be over the moon if I could get to do this on a weekly basis. Unfortunatly my income is not enough to support this challenge.
This is not a post seeking likes or shares but simply a post that is asking you to look at a different way of judging people, or making an impression of someone. Sit down have a talk with them and you will realise how similiar these great people are to ourselfs. Ohhh and please buy them some food and water. Its the vitals in life they dont care about anything else.
I have set up a just giving page for anyone who wishes to donate. Every little helps.
At the time of writing, Aitken has already raised well over £2000 ($2884) on his JustGiving page.
He's continuing to go out and help homeless people, too.
Aitken told the Edinburgh Evening News that he's thought about doing what he did last Friday for awhile now.
"My aim is to raise awareness of these people and what some of them have gone through," he said.
"Homeless people are human beings, they've got feelings and want exactly the same as everyone else."

Homeless in New York

Must Reads: Homeless in New York, Havoc in Kiev and MoreKiev-protest

During the week, we consume words in snackable, tweetable bites. But on the weekends, we have the time to take a dive into the murkier, lengthier depths of the Internet and expand our attention spans beyond 140 characters. We can brew a cup of coffee and lie back with our iPads, laptops, smartphones and Kindles.
Since you're bound to miss a few things during the daily grind, we present to you, in our weekly installation of Mashblur Must Reads, a curated list of can't-miss stories from around the web to read and reflect on. (You can find last week's must reads here.)

Girl in the Shadows: Dasani's Homeless Life | The New York Times

    More than 22,000 homeless children live in New York, the highest number since the Great Depression. The number is so high, in fact, that it can be difficult to visualize the sheer scope. In this gut-wrenching five-part series, the Times puts a human face on youth homelessness: 11-year-old Dasani and her family.

In the Belly of the Beast | Rolling Stone

    What's the price we pay for cheap meat? Some of the factory farms where animals are turned into meat operate under unbelievably dire conditions. Some 528 million land acres across the U.S. are devoted to animal production, but activists and whistleblowers are piloting farms to replenish the land and the animals living there. Editor's note: This piece includes content that some may find disturbing.

Another Year, Another Man for TIME | Mashblur

    In 1999, TIME Magazine changed its "Man of the Year" to "Person of the Year." It was a step in the right direction, but of the 86 annual issues that the magazine has published since 1927, only five featured women. That's not for a lack of contenders.

The Manhunt for Christopher Dorner | The Los Angeles Times

    The four-part series makes you relive the horror and suspense that filled the news in February of Christopher Dorner, the former LAPD police officer charged with a series of shootings on police officers and their families. The story is so mind-blowing — Dorner knew exactly what he was doing — that it strangely feels like reading fiction.

This Mom Is the Most Inspiring Olympic Hopeful You've Never Heard Of | Mashblur

    Jacki Munzel, 50 and a mother of three, isn't a household name. But 30 years ago, on track to make the U.S. figure skating team for the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, she had a very real shot at it. Then, months before the Games, her chance melted away in a matter of moments due to a debilitating illness. So began her long path to recovery — and, perhaps, another shot at another Winter Games.

Google’s Road Map to Global Domination | The New York Times

    It's hard to argue that 2013 was the year of Google. Among other milestones, the company launched Google Glass, Android grabbed 81% of the smartphone market and their stock hit $1,000 per share. In an interview, Luc Vincent, the man behind the imagery in Google's online maps, reveals some of his grand plans for the search giant. Don't ask what they are; ask where.

From the Icy Streets of Kiev, Ukraine Spring Goes Global | Mashblur

    Over the past few weeks, mayhem has filled the streets of Kiev, Ukraine. After President Viktor Yanukovych refused to sign free trade and political agreements with the European Union, citizens took to the streets in protest, demanding closer relations with the EU. Here, Christopher Miller, an editor at English-language newspaper the Kyiv Post in Ukraine, reflects on the demonstrations.
Don't have time to read them all now? In our Readlist below, export this week's must reads to your tablet to save for a time you have no distractions. Simply click the "read later" button alongside each story or or click "export" to send the entire list of articles to your preferred device.