"My name is David. I am nine years old, I have cerebral palsy. My room in the B&B is very small so I can’t use my walker or wheelchair,” reads the caption of a heartbreaking video going viral today.
The short video was uploaded onto social media channels by Inner City Helping Homelessness (ICHH), as part of their #MyNameIs campaign.
There are currently 2,895 homeless children in the country right now.
This moving campaign wants to put faces and names to the thousands of homeless children in Ireland, by asking people to share their stories online, with the hashtag #MyNameIs.
#MyNameIs David. I am 9 years old. I have cerebral palsy and have been homeless for nearly two years. #morningIreland #liveline #sixone pic.twitter.com/XHLfruRBbn
— MyNameIs (@MyNameCampaign) August 23, 2017
David's video has gone viral, and has accumulated over 200,000 views since it was uploaded. It shows him attempting to enter his temporary accomodation while using his walker - a task that proves extremely difficult due to all the steps.
This morning, thousands of posters of homeless children’s faces were posted around Dublin, Cork, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Galway, according to David Nugent, head of advocacy at ICHH.
“These are real children,” he explained, also mentioning that a number of videos like David's will be shared this week.
Speaking about the problem of homelessness, Anthony Flynn, who is the CEO of ICHH, explained:
“When we started, the homeless issue was rough sleepers and then, by two years, we were inundated with families. I don’t believe the public is aware of how bad the child and family homelessness situation really is."
Dogs on the street know that something needs to be done urgently on the humanitarian crisis in homelessness #MyNameIs pic.twitter.com/dkYU5MluLk
— MyNameIs (@MyNameCampaign) August 26, 2017
“We estimate that there will be more children than adults in homeless services by January 2018. We want to change the public’s perception on homelessness with #MyNameIs.
“This is an education campaign. We hear about adults, but never children who are homeless.”
The most shocking part of this whole story is what sparked it. The campaign began when the ICHH discovered that three kids under the age of eleven had been given sleeping bags, due to the lack of emergency accomodation.
“We just thought: ‘what can we do?’ So we came up with #MyNameIs campaign and there are three actions people can take."
How many homeless children is too many @MurphyEoghan? Over 100 in Galway alone #MyNameIs pic.twitter.com/qmWpNgLZVa
— SocDems Galway West (@SocDemsGalway) August 28, 2017
“One is to use the #MyNameIs hashtag on social media to start conversations about homelessness; the second thing is to lobby your local councillor, TD, or prospective political candidate on the issue; and thirdly the campaign is asking people to reflect on their skill or trade to see if they can volunteer an hour of their time to help an organisation in their area.
“We carried out a survey and around 85% of people said homelessness was rough sleepers, people begging, or those with substance abuse issues. Very few said it was it was family or children. Homelessness has changed and we need to address that.”
For more information about this important campaign, head over to the website.
