Homelessness: a harsh reality
Ambreen Muhammed, from the Imperial Muslim Volunteer Network is aiming to raise awareness of homelessness this winter
The wind scratches your face, your mouth as dry as parchment, the bitter cold tormenting your every thought. Your bones moan in pain as you search frantically for shelter.under a tree, behind a dustbin, in a cardboard box, anything that will get you through the night. This is just a simplified snapshot of the life of a homeless person. As Imperial students, we are blessed to not be in this position, but how often does it occur to us that this life could very easily be ours?
As we enjoy the pleasures of this world and sit in out cushioned lives, we often don’t think twice about the people who are suffering on our streets: the homeless man who we rush past on our way into the tube station, the woman whom we don’t look twice at as we pop into the corner shop because we are “so hungry” or the child sitting next to the bin in hopes that someone will drop in a half-eaten sandwich. These are the people who need our help, the people who out of no fault of their own are living a reality that they can’t escape. Yes, our time is spent worrying about how many lectures we have to catch up on and exams and lab reports, but can we just give a fraction of this time to think about them. Just a small percentage of your time to think about what we can do to help those who can’t help themselves. Don’t get me wrong, I get it. We don’t always know how to help and honestly as students, we don’t always have the finances to either. But the vision that I am proposing here is bigger than that. It is where we as students volunteer our time to the homeless and give them a small part of their humanity back.
The Imperial Muslim Volunteer Network (IMVN) has a vision to increase student participation in volunteering for the local community and on campus. To help with the issue of homelessness, we are running fortnightly Homeless Drives, giving you the chance to give food and drink to the homeless. In the run up to this, we are holding our Homeless Panel on Tuesday 27th November in Huxley 340 at 6:15. This event is open to all and aims to explore the issue of homelessness and offer solutions to the growing epidemic on our streets. To find out more information on our inspiring panellists, search IMVN on Facebook and click going on the event page.
We really do hope to see you there because individually we may not be able to cure the problem of homelessness, but TOGETHER it is our duty to chip away at this epidemic for as long as we need to.
