ที่มา/ความสำคัญโครงการ :

Life “street” that many people overlook.

Today, Street Style Thailand asks you to touch lives of homeless people with your fingers. I got a degree in political science, but am interested in a social campaign. I unexpectedly wrote an article about creative social campaigns with Zero Sum Good 2 months ago and got a chance to visit a Food for Friends project. This project was created by a millionaire who had contacted the Mirror Foundation that he would open an almshouse. But the foundation suggested him to operate as a mobile car in different locations to help more people. Every Monday morning at the Giant Swing, 200 homeless people systematically were waiting to receive food and medicines when the car arrived.

I got a chance to know P’G, working in corporate communication at the Mirror Foundation and suggesting me to know P”A. I tried to talk about my dream project after being inspired by the VinziRast campaign in Austria. That project had delivered a smartphone to a homeless guy to express his feeling and experience in his daily life with simple words.

These were our conversations, which I saw possibility to make this project happen.

Me: do you have a Facebook account?

P’A: I do

(I was shocking for a moment because I did not expect that)

Me: Really. how do you do?

P’A: My literate friend signed up for me

Me: No. I mean what device do you use?

P’A: This one

Me: wow! You use a better one than me. How did you get this?

P’A: the owner gave me

Me: why did he do that?

P’A: he pitied me

Me: how did you connect to the Internet?

P’A: I could find an area or played at an Internet café

Me: Can I be your Facebook friend?

P’A: (he pointed to his email and told me to find his account by typing his email. And that was my first time to find someone by email)

Me: Hey! Why do you use this name (อ้วน ระเบิดตูด)

P’A: it’s funny

(While I was looking at his Facebook, he showed me his profiles)

P’A: by the way, I play games

Me: (Due to my curiosity, I surprised that he made a better score than I did.)

After that day, I started talking to P’A and hoped that this project would be done. But I needed time to be familiar with him.

Every week, he said “hi” to me twice a week on Facebook. In addition, I was also surprised when he called me by Video Call.

From this experience, I was thinking about that because he called me by Video Call many times without asking anything, which made me thought that people need more than just four requisites. They need a friend or someone to talk and listen.

ประโยชน์ของโครงการ :

I see possibilities in 3 levels to start this project.

1. Create awareness of homeless people in a simple way (reading a short feed on Facebook is more relevant to people in the 21st century than a long article). In this level, I can guarantee new media can illustrate new dimensions of homeless people’s lives.

2. Create collaborations or channels to help homeless people. I believe that reaching Mass will make resource distribution easier. For example, more people donate to the Mirror Foundation; homeless people can get a job; and homeless people can get some good advice. These are what happened in Austria, and I believe we can see that in Thailand too. (I am not sure this level will happen because it depends on what society thinks about homeless people)

3. In a long term, if this issue becomes a national agenda, people could put pressure to the government to do something about a policy, which could be a way to solve this problem permanently. (I cannot guarantee anything because it depends on whether or not a homeless guy should have equal basic human rights)

I can guarantee one thing that you can see is a different view of life. I think it is worthwhile comparing to a budget to see lives of homeless people.

กิจกรรมที่จะดำเนินโครงการ :

What we will do is giving a smartphone to a homeless man to record his daily life, feeling, and experience. What he eats, how he sleeps, whom he meets, and how he feels will be recorded and presented. In the first 4 months, many events happened, and we already experimented this project but did not get much attention. Follow us at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Street-Style-Thailand/789732634397602)

Recently, I got news that P’A had got a job at the Mirror Foundation. This means that he will not be a homeless man anymore, while the project has been going strongly.

Fortunately, P’Ae, a leader of the Food for Friends and homeless sick man project the Mirror Foundation, told me about P’Bin, a homeless man having a lot of homeless people. He used to work as a tour guide at the Mirror Foundation and a volunteer to help homeless people at Sanam Luang – Rajdumnern.

Today, I have a smartphone but do not have other support such as Internet, equipment, and traveling expense. I also want to pay two homeless men joining this project.

สมาชิกภายในทีม :

Thitirerk Phromvanich

I got a degree in political science and am interested in a social campaign. I got a chance to write a blog about a social campaign with Zero Sum Good (https://www.facebook.com/zerosumgood) Today is my time.

Mobile phone : 090-9949472

E-mail: naocrituss@gmail.com

FB: https://www.facebook.com/thitirerk

ภาคี :

อื่นๆ

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Street Style Thailand: Follow Homeless people