My Life as a Street Worker.

Now with Jubby and Ella on their way back home, I thought it best that I start actively looking and applying for work as 2 months in London without a job had seriously depleted the old bank account (although at the time the exchange rate had been slowly dropping and hence working in my favour). Gumtree again came to my aid and within a week I had found the job I had been searching for. I had decided ever since reaching Europe from Asia that I didn’t want to be just another drone behind a desk or apron and instead wanted to earn money doing something worthwhile in the world. Something that actually gave a sense of job satisfaction through helping people. I had interviews with two different charities (well, one charity and one fundraising agency) and chose to become a Charity Street Fundraiser for the UK’s largest homeless charity, St. Mungo’s (funny name, I know, but St. Mungo is actually the patron saint of Glasgow). Initially we were a team of 6 hitting the streets in a different place within – and sometimes outside of – London every day.
I bought myself a neat little folding bike so I could actually see the city on the way to work as opposed to just its expensive, yet convenient underground system (it was a short-lived luxury, however, as the bike was stolen one week later from Old Street where I was working). Team morale turned out to be similarly short-lived – due to a combination of verbal abuse from people on the streets, several personality conflicts and lack of leadership – and it wasn’t long before our team leader was fired and several others quit. The idea behind the work was to get monthly donations from people but it gets quite difficult, as you could imagine, when you get people, for instance, telling you to your face that "you’re a prick!" for working for a charity trying to help homeless people get off the streets and get their lives back on track. It’s exactly this kind of reaction from people that also just generally taints your view of society as a whole.
Another interesting exchange I had was with a taxi driver on my way to work one day while I still had my bike. I was a little lost and late for work so who better to ask than someone who knows the city like the back of their hand? What a mistake. Well, he blatantly refused to help me because he "doesn’t like bike riders". How incredibly insulting! I don’t think I’ve ever been discriminated against like that before. I could only imagine what it would be like having to put up with that every day of your life… So, with that experience behind me and during the course of my work for St. Mungo’s, I’ve developed such a huge appreciation for the individual needs and situations of others – you just never know what has brought someone to their position in that point in time: how can you judge them without knowing the full story?

Photos:

A terrible thing... (before shot)

to the rescue!!! (after shot)

May, my little fundraising champ!

the St. Mungo's team during a bricks and mortar workshop

my lovely bike! a bit funny looking isn't it..?