Homeless Kids’ dreams – make them come true

“Begging would have been the best option if God had given talents to only a selected few. Fortunately, He gave us all our compactible gifts respectively, so it is an offence to be a chronic beggar.”

―Israelmore Ayivor

This is Ivan, 21 years old student from Republic of Georgia and I would like to tell you a story. Beggary among kids has become a regular in republic of Georgia. We meet beggar, homeless kids at bus stands, railway platforms, hospitals, markets and almost everywhere. They can be seen at other places also. Beggary has become a profession for young people. As you know many beggars are professional thieves and I was very skeptical to them. Sometimes, I'm not proud to say, I feel a flash of irritation at beggars for making me uncomfortable in this way. On the other hand, if I'm in a poorer country, for example on a work assignment, I'm much more likely to fish around in my pockets for some money and give it to a beggar. Perhaps my feelings of guilt in a developing country are stronger; often the fact that the beggar is a child makes it that much harder to walk on by. But now I’m not actually writing about beggary, I’m writing about how strong and beautiful human is. Almost a week ago in the early morning I was going to University from my best friend’s where I spent previous night. I use subway all the time and I’m accustomed to meet homeless kids over there trying to earn some coins. To my surprise, there was one boy, around 11 who was sitting down in the corner and reading something to their friends. As I found out, he was the only who could reading among those kids. I came closer and it was an old book, maybe stolen from some second-hand book shop, about how basketball team Dinamo Tbilisi became champion in 1968-69 years. They were listening very carefully to this kid reading history of basketball. I’m was playng this sport at school age and I just wanted to tell them some stories about NBA, about my favorite players and games – that’s what I did. We found small public garden, found seat and talked about basketball for almost an hour. People walking over there, like couples, old people, they were gazing at us, because that situation was very unfamiliar to them. And this is the whole point, how we treat people in my country, homeless people, people with no money and normal clothes. Below you can see the social experiment held by UNICEF in Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, which shows us truth about us, citizens of my country. During that wonderful hour with those kids, I understood that they had huge dreams, outward appearances, opinions regarding some issues, but no possibilities to achieve them. Me and my friend, Zaza, decided to create non-profit organization to find those kids all over the country, they are so so many, provide them with clothes, food and if we have enough power, our goal is to hire small accomodation in one of the old district of city for those kids near the subway which costs 4200$ for two years.

I will be thankful to you all. Let’s help these wonderful people achieve their goals. Thank you once again for your generous heart.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQcN5DtMT-0 - Project of UNICEF