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UKC Students Against Homelessness Society partake in 5 day sleep-out
In a sleep-out, which ran from Friday 29th January to Wednesday 3rd February, Alex Self, Damon Reid-Williams and Zoe Scandrett, students of the University of Kent, braved the cold streets of Canterbury to raise awareness for Canterbury’s homeless.
The three members of the UKC Students Against Homelessness Society also raised money for charity, Porchlight, as part of the Poverty and Homeless Awareness Week.
Alex Self, the Treasurer of the society described how a similar fundraising act in Montreal, in which students slept rough in up to 8 inches of snow, inspired the Students Against Homelessness Society to come up with a campaign.
Although it is unlikely that such weather conditions can be found in Canterbury, Alex was adamant that, whatever the weather would be like, the students were determined to remain as close as possible to real circumstances; “If it rains we will find shelter just the same as any rough sleeper. I will not be going home.”
The participants believe the experience has provided them with a genuine empathy for the homeless, a renewed knowledge of their own resolve and a closeness with many of the rough sleepers of Canterbury.
Alex, who was strongly concerned about the reaction of the homeless, stated; “We’re doing this to raise awareness, if they don’t like it we’ll leave”. However the students have been met with an overwhelming experience from the rough sleepers of the city. When asked of his response to the sleep out, a rough sleeper replied “I am absolutely overwhelmed that someone gives a damn” and continued to speak of a personal warmth brought to members of the homeless community by the presence of the students.