Did you know that before
being a radio announcer, Kyle Sandilands experienced homelessness in his mid
teens? You can read all about his journey in his book Scandalands.
On June 22, 2016, I was in
Chatswood Westfield and I met a homeless man and I learnt 2 very important
lessons from him: firstly and contrary to what you might think, there are no
one-size-fits-all circumstances to homelessness, and secondly; that I shouldn’t
take when people stare at me in my wheelchair so personally, because at least
some people kindly come up and speak to me, whereas a homeless person has to
rely on fate most of the time in order to be spoken to, or desperately yearn
for kind-hearted human contact with others.
I now fully understand
what the purpose of all these humanitarian videos on Facebook of people going undercover pretending to be homeless is:
to answer the frequent question of, if you saw someone struggling in some way
and/or desperately needing help, would you stop to help them? I definitely can
say that I certainly would.
If you ever see a homeless
person, please respect their journey instead of judging it, offer them a kind,
heartfelt and acknowledging smile, and kindly offer to help them in any way you
possibly can (even just with a hug or a friendly small chat).
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