2013 Vinnies CEO Sleepout Thursday 20 June
The aim of the Vinnies CEO Sleepout is not only to raise funds, but raise awareness of and for our countries homelessness. The slogan for this year is to #halvehomelessness.
I thought i would give you an insight to what occurs on the night. The event usually starts of with a Merlot coffees van and a soup from the amazing crew from Rosies . Throughout the evening there are video diary rooms for CEO’s to record how the experience has affected them. Here is mine. Following this, there are usually some amazing speeches from people who have been directly affected by poverty, and have seen first hand the great work Vinnies do.
It might be staggering for you to learn that there are more than 100,000 Australians who find themselves homeless each night of the year. Just under half of these are women; a quarter are under the age of 18.
Some more Stats that i found appalling.
• 58% of homeless people are under 35 years of age
• 44% are women and;
• 12% are under 12 years of age
Having been involved since 2011, i have helped raise more than $15 000 for Vinnies. This is a cause that i do feel very passionately about. What i learnt from the previous years events, was that some of the people on the street are there through no fault of their own, just as a result of circumstance or bad luck. The people who live on the street are no different from you or I, they have families and people who care about them. Some people may see them as lazy or unwilling, however when you get to know some of them, you find out that the problems can run much deeper. Some of them are suffering from sever depression, or other mental illnesses that prevent them from climbing out of the hole they find themselves in. Attending these events has really taught me to have a great deal of compassion for our countries homeless. I urge anyone that can help in anyway to make a donation to Vinnies, whether it $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, so they can continue doing their great work.
