It all started in front of Plaça Universitat in Barcelona at 7:30 p.m. on December 9th. Instead of having a conference with 4 speakers, we formed a circle of more than 30 citizens who shared their ideas and actions on how we can offer more housing and work solutions to the homeless. To make sure that the participants understood how the event worked, we created a very large and clear banner in case someone had any doubts.
Some of the topics we talked about were:
- Porta22 as a potential collaborator to create work
- Café El Techo, a Michael Goeckon project that will offer work and autonomy from your cafeteria
- The importance of languages hanks to a collaborator, Patrícia , who offers classes in Catalan and Spanish to homeless entrepreneurs.
- The obstacle of overcoming addictions as accessible as alcohol, thanks to a collaborator, Daniel , who had lived on the street.
- The importance of accompanying psychologists to help homeless people get ahead thanks to Silvia López Rodríguez .
Thanks to Blanca Pijuan , you will see a video of the final part of the debate. After the first part, we took a warm vegetable soup with pumpkin, zucchini, onion, black pepper and sumo vegetal that Anita Macedo brought us , an expert in health and physical activity, for the 8 people who were going to sleep in the street with us . It was great but so much soup meant we had to find a place to go to the bathroom. We were very lucky because the workers of Luna de Instanbul(Ronda Sant Antonio, 102) they let us use it. We only had to "flash" once during the dead hours of the night. It is not very comfortable to pay attention to the blue sirens of the police that could possibly interfere with you for using the only space available for homeless people at 4 o'clock in the morning, the street. Three of the people sleeping with us tried to use the H10universitat basinbecause they thought it would be a place that would offer them the opportunity to use it but the employee did not even open the door to answer them and slid the card of their company under the glass. This was a shocking experience for them because they had never thought about how difficult it is to pee if you do not have a home with a sink. After the soup, we talked with the wanderers who passed by the square in front of our asphalt bed. Would you stop if a homeless person tried to talk to you or ignore you?
We tried to sleep at night but it was impossible for some until 4 o'clock and others did not sleep at all. We had a free entrance to the street theater and the play was called "Monólogos Sin Hogar." It was the event in which we talked to more homeless people than ever. Miguel, a Chilean who sleeps at a cashier in La Caixa near Entença Street, gave me his email and explained his problems as a worker without a contract and how difficult it is to charge the entire amount for renovating the houses. He said "If you owe me € 200 but you only have € 70 to pay me, I have to shut up and accept it because otherwise I will not be able to work with it in the future and I would lose more than € 130." While talking to one of the participants, they brought us hot milk with chocolate and music in the background. For my surprise, There was a religious group trying to convert some participants in the middle of the square. We respect all those who want to help and we understand that everyone does it with the best intention. As your flyer says, "we all have the opportunity to decide."
Also a woman from Brazil stopped and got off her bike to talk to us a little bit drunk and above all very happy while her friend took a picture of the group of people sleeping in the street with us.
The last person who greeted us before falling asleep was Juan Ma, a man with 50 years of age who asked us where he could buy more beer while holding a red can of damm star. He told us about the 'payos' that throw the squatters because he told us that people should not be on the street when there are so many empty places; He also told us regretfully about his 16 years in prison, his son in prison and his 2-year-old granddaughter whom he was a citizen of. We listened attentively for 45 minutes and learned a lot about how he survived with few resources and before leaving, he offered us a package of ham that obviously we could not refuse. He vanished in the cold night and those who could,
Most of us are afraid of the unknown and sleeping on the street can scare many people because we stop controlling our surroundings and there is no key to close a door to stop a thief and / or something worse. How do they see us when we sleep on the street?
We woke up with the sun and Andrzej accompanied us at 9 o'clock to help us create more awareness. He would have stayed with us in the street but he spent 1 week in the Hospital del Mar due to pneumonia that he took sleeping in the Paseo de Picasso. Being a carrier of HIV and coping with the cold of winter is a deadly combination for a homeless person. Thanks to Center d'Acolliment Residencial Zona Franca, Andrzej, he slept well and started the day with us with a huge smile.
Without knowing it, we had woken up in the place where many entities were going to celebrate the international day of human rights . I had the pleasure of accompanying Toni Clapésa few steps and explain what we do before giving him a flyer and wish him a good Saturday. I hope you like what we are doing from the association. Waking up on a Saturday morning for many means showering, having breakfast and resting but for us it means 12 hours of raising awareness and raising funds among all the chaos and harmony that the streets and their citizens provide. Although the cardboard weighs 0.689 grams per centimeter, try to take it up 12 hours and you will see that you would not need to go to the gym later. He carried a banner explaining that we had slept there the night before; Vincent sold his English classes and Andrzej sold his massages.
Throughout the day, among many, I met Aziz Faye, the spokesman of the union of manteros of Barcelona ; an iaioflauta who paid the first massage, € 5 for 10 minutes of Andrzej as Entrepreneur Without a Roof; Kelly Lynn Lunde , a photojournalist for Al Jazeera English; Roberto Enríquez , writer at La Marea and Revista Mongolia; and a person who had consumed heroin for 18 years who tried to trick me by saying that he knew a woman who wanted to donate but needed € 20 to give him change ... Anyway, 24 hours gives for many conversations, some opportunities and some lies. The common sense street is what defines how you take advantage, more or less, these situations. About 5:45 pm, 8tvcame to interview us at the end of the event. It came out in the news of the weekend (06: 07-06: 45) and as you can see, our faces showed the tiredness of participating the entire 24 hours on the street.
One of the best results of the event is the opportunity to grow the team of Entrepreneurs Without a Roof. In the next photo, Marcos gave Vincent a new jacket that he found.
A very important milestone in the 4th event of #TodosDurmiendoEnLaCalle is that they fulfilled the 24 hours without stopping the first two citizens with roof, Nuria GF and Javier Garcia Calvache . Nuria answered the question about #TodosDurmiendoEnLaCalle that "the truth is that it is a unique experience that everyone should live to be aware of with this cause."
We would like to remind you that this action of #TodosDurmiendoEnLaCalle will accelerate the process of providing shelter and creating work for the homeless. After collecting everything at 7:30 p.m., the space where we spent 24 hours without a home remained exactly as before, with no one sleeping on the street, and we hope that all citizens, businesses and the government put their batteries in order for us to take a photo from the place where they sleep in the streets of Barcelona without them in 2022.
We hope you will come to the next event that will be held at the Puerta del Sol Plaza in Madrid on January 5 at 7:30 p.m.
