What's the problem?

 

There are nearly 7,000 homeless people in Atlanta. They face many challenges- how to stay warm, where to stay at night, or where to get food. One challenge that many of us don't even consider is - Where to put their belongings. 

 

Often times, the homeless are forced to put all their belongings into one small bag or whatever else they can find. Alot of times, they use shopping carts they've found, or even trash bags. Unfortunately, city cleaning and other city services mistake these for trash and throw away the collection of all of the homeless's belongings! Imagine if you had to carry everything you owned with you wherever you went. 

 

They can't even go to their jobs without the worry that their entire life's belongings might be accidentally throw away!

 

 

Our Solution

Together, we can collectively work to change that. WTFC strives to reduce the burden that these people carry by donating backpacks. A backpack may not mean much to us but it can be a big deal to someone in need. If you have one bag, I have a bag, and our friends have bags, together we can give the homeless a place for their belongings. 

 

That is one basic need we want to address. You may have a lot of discarded bags at home - I know I did when i started out a few months ago - we had a lot of bags that had just a nick or two here or there and we had bought a new one. The old unused bags were lying in an old carton in the basement - seeing an opportunity, i also reached out to some of my friends and they shared similar stories.

 

We started collecting and soon we had 20 bags among 5 friends. We filled them up with other items like old jackets, toiletries, some cereal bars, a water bottle, and a book. When we went to share these bags with some homeless people, it was amazing to see their eyes lit up just looking at the bags. That was obviously something they could use immediately! Surprisingly, they loved the books and many spent more time browsing an old Harry Potter I put in the bag than looking at the clothes.