Homeless For A Day

February 07, 2008

Canada World Youth Exchange Programme participants organized the campaign Homeless For A Day.

People may know the facts that actually never come to their minds. For example, officially there are 129,000 homeless children in Ukraine. This fact became a concern for the participants of Canada World Youth Exchange Programme who wanted to draw the attention of the public to this problem by organizing the campaign Homeless For A Day in Ostroh Academy National University. They organized fundraising to support Rivne Regional Shelter.

Ostroh Academy teaching staff and students shared the exchange students’ initiative and signed the petition for state funding of the Shelter, which is now at the risk of closing. The organizers of the campaign believe that the orphanages have insufficient funding and the foreign organizations that establish foundations and fund orphanages do not have relevant government support. The idea belongs to CWY participant Heather Jackson who had similar experience in Canada. “Our basic aim is to feel ourselves in ‘the homeless’ shoes’ and tell others about our experience”, commented the action CWY program supervisor Olena Tyshko. “All we do is to raise the spirit of morality and eliminate indifference. We hope to fundraise for Rivne Regional Shelter that is engaged with settling of the homeless children and providing normal living conditions for them”.