“Hi, welcome to the Anglicare Sleep Our 2018! Here’s your identity card. Please place your sleeping bags to the right whilst we wait for everyone to arrive.”
It’s the 3rd of August and myself along with my fellow students, are at the new Optus Stadium, excited and eager to begin the 2018 Anglicare Sleep Out. Unbeknownst to us, there was not going to be much sleeping involved!
Upon arrival at the sleep out we were met with a new identity. A new name for ourselves that would help us to recreate an example of a homeless person’s situation for the night. The aim of these identities was for a later activity that allowed us all to experience the difficulties homeless people face in gaining life’s necessities such as food, shelter and clothing. Gaining work was near impossible. We came to realise what a huge help Anglicare is and how the Street Connect Bus provides excellent counselling, support and all round assistance. Unfortunately, we were quick to realise the sheer number of other people in need of similar help, and how as a non-government funded organization, any donation helps. We understood how huge our own work to raise money had been and exactly how it would be used. In total, Peter Moyes Anglican Community School managed to raise over $6 000, two thousand dollars over our initial goal! All together, the schools raised over $82 000, which was a new record!
After completing some activities with our new identities, we headed back to the seated area to hear some personal accounts and gain some further insight into Anglicare’s work. These talks allowed for a lot of reflective behavior in terms of the difficulties in the activities we faced, that aren’t in fact activities for homeless people but are real life. This included gaining identification, food from the soup kitchen, visiting the job centre and Centrelink. Our beds for the night consisted of a piece cardboard and whatever layers we had brought with us such as sleeping bags and blankets, whilst our dinners were served aimed at the masses, as we each received one cup of soup.
We spent most of the night talking to new and old friends, and trying our best not to freeze. We spoke about the activities from earlier and the lessons we had learnt. Just as we all began to fall asleep we were faced with the ear piercing sounds of sirens. These noises occurred for quite some time, waking up most of us. If the sirens didn’t wake us however, the guards shining torches in our faces and shouting at us to move onwards certainly did. We were all forced to move on but leave our belongings. By the time we got back, all of our sleeping bags had been hidden. This experience showed us what little respect homeless people receive and how a person’s situation is constantly changing; nothing is certain or concrete. During the two hours we slept, there were other noises played such as dogs barking to help create a more realistic situation.
This experience taught us how privileged we are in everyday life, and how it is so important to not take anything for granted, including sleep and a comfortable bed. At the end of the experience, we each began to catch sight of a glimpse of the life of a homeless person. Feeling incredible but tired, we packed up our few possessions the following morning and headed home, bags under our eyes and smiles on our faces, knowing we had done even just a little bit of good in the world.
Written by Millie Foster, Year 11