smothered hope

Did you know that laptops and cellphones can greatly improve the quality of life for homeless and transient people? I've been reading about this for a little while now, thanks especially to my man, Steve, who picks up L'Itineraire whenever he can. So I got to thinking, I like helping out people who have it worse than myself, as I think anyone with any semblance of a conscience does, and since I'm not making any income just right now, what could I possibly do to help? The answer: Steve and I have some old cell phones laying about, which we figured we'd just trash or recycle somehow. We could donate them!

But wait! Don't we know plenty of people who have old cell phones, Blackberrys, PDAs, laptops laying about as spare parts, or simply gathering dust? Maybe I should put the word out for a collection. So here's the word: Get in touch with me if you'd like to help me amass a bunch of electronic communications devices to donate to the homeless. What, were you hoping to sell that 1997 Motorola on eBay for five bucks? Pfffft. It's more cost-effective to donate it. And it can be such a boon to those people who want to get their autonomy back but can't without any way to check their e-mail or call their friends, potential employers or social workers.

If you want to learn more about how the homeless get online and on their feet with the use of phones and laptops, check out the links above, and the subsequent links you will find therein. I'm not saying a donation will help every homeless person in Montreal find a job and a home, but it will make a difference to some of them, which frankly, is fuckin' great in my books.

I live very close to the Itineraire's cafe, and I intend to take a box full of donations to their location next week, whether or not anyone else has anything to contribute. If you have anything you think may be useful, please contact me at kaffeine at diaryland dot com.

If you don't have anything of an electronic nature laying about, but you want to help, one thing you can do that's relatively cheap is to go to the Itineraire's website and purchase meal cards for the people who drop in to their cafe. It's like buying someone a gift card from a store, only these are for meals instead of books or CDs. You can purchase them to be handed out in the cafe itself, or buy some and go passing them out to people you might meet in the street, as an alternative to giving them your change.

Below are some links where you can learn more about homeless people and ways to help.

L'Itineraire - A magazine and organization by and for street people. (Mostly in French.)
Kevin Barbieux's blog. - He endeavours to provide a voice for others in his position, as well as educate others on the reality of homelessness.
Dans la Rue - A Montreal-based organization aimed at homeless kids.
A portal to links about and for the homeless in Canada.
Homeless News Canada
NHI - The National Homelessness Initiative of the government of Canada.

back | forth

listening:
reading:
ingesting:
(see entries before 20.11.05)

previously on Smothered Hope:

unreal - 20.05.08
in which our narrator kinda just babbles on a bit - 15.05.08
drank several margaritas last night. they were great. - 04.05.08
spacey - 29.04.08
i will most definitely regret posting this in public - 28.04.08