Photographer : 3x0=3 |
What my action was
Buying lunch for a homeless person.
How I came up with my action
I have big ambitions and a global vision ... world peace, eradication of world poverty, cultural understanding and tolerance, to name a few. So when I set out to do an action, I wanted to do something spectacular and make a huge impact. So coming up with an action that reflected my vision was a real challenge.
I started off with the idea of volunteering with an international humanitarian organisation who works in this field. But then all these sign posts started popping up which completely changed my approach to this action.
First it was a meeting with Medicines Sans Frontiers, where the communications team shared with me their first hand experiences of the suffering in DRC and other African countries. I was greatly disheartened and wanted to do real field work like the MSF staff. Only one problem, I wouldn’t be able to make it to Africa and back in 8 weeks for practical reasons.
The next sign post was my sister, sick of hearing me rant on about poverty in the Third World, telling me to tackle poverty in my own backyard—that is in Sydney.
Then my brother got back from his holiday in the US and told me about the extent of homelessness in New York City and how young kids would be robbing these homeless people on the steps of churches in broad day light.
Then there was walking past Redfern station on my way to uni and seeing the homeless women with her sign and cup begging for change.
Next I was talking to homeless people at the Exodus Foundation in Ashfield, where I was taking photos for my place feature. I discovered unlike all the stereotypes, these are just normal people!!
So it was decided then, my action would be to buy lunch for and talk with a homeless person.
Taking action
So I went down to Darling St Balmain. I saw the homeless man outside Woolies that my friend Hannah told me about. So I bought 2 coffees and planned on approaching him and offering a coffee. But by the time the coffees were ready, he had already bought one for himself with the change someone gave him. When I got there I was like what do I say to this guy. So I just sat next to him and started talking to him. At first he was saying some pretty rude stuff—which had anyone else said I’d I’ve waked away. But it wasn't spiteful or aggressive just naïve. Before long we’d found some common ground. Anyway I managed to find out that his name is Michael, he's 56, he's from the Northern part of Greece. He has 3 sisters—Helen, Annette and someone else. He’s the eldest. He has one niece. He grew up in Adelaide, arriving in Australia when he was 6 years old. He asked me to find him a girlfriend. He also taught me some Greek—some really rude words actually (which I found out later from a Greek friend lol). Anyway he really appreciated the company. He even wanted to shake my hand.
I continued to visit Michael a few times. Some days though he didn’t want to talk about anything but rude things so that was hard. I wonder if he was trying to test me though—to see if I’d stay.
One time, this woman was walking past and just stoped in front of us, looking horrified, I noticed Michael waving at her, so I asked if he knew her. He said no and kept waving. Then it occurred to me what he was doing—he was waving at ignorance and I laughed so hard.
The last time I saw Michael we were supposed to meet for lunch. We were going to have kebabs. So I bought lunch but Michael didn’t show up. I walked around Balmain trying to find him but he was nowhere to be found. I don’t think he likes me anymore so I felt really bad when I left.
The challenges
My first challenge was coming up with an action. There’s so much to be done it’s quite daunting. But I realised I had to start somewhere.
Once I decided on an action, I was worried that I’d be rejected, ignored or yelled at when I approached the person. Not to mention that it required I leave my comfort zone. But I was determined to go through with it.
The other challenge is talking about my action. Talking about personal experiences like that is not something I usually do or am any good at. But I’m doing it because I think actions speak louder than words and people will be more inspired by your example than your empty words.
What I achieved
Okay so I didn’t eradicate world poverty like I wanted to initially. But I did reach out to and connect with another human being and gave him the respect he’s entitled to. We found common ground and had a good laugh. I think he appreciated the company. And maybe in a small way by shocking and horrifying the bystanders I was able to combat their ignorance or maybe just convince them that I’m strange.
What I learnt …
… that action is for everyone—not just hippies or activists (I’m neither).
… action can be whatever you want it to be and as big or small as you want it to be
… lots of little actions create big change!!
… even though I didn’t achieve what I set out to, I still made an impact and I learnt so much
… taking action is more productive than complaining about the world
“That the possibility that we may fail in the struggle should not deter us from supporting a struggle we believe to be just” (Abraham Lincoln)
