Project Givens | Helping the homeless in Budapest | The first update!

If you would like to know more about Project Givens just click on the link. I made a post about my plans to start helping the homeless in Budapest last week, which you can find here. Now it's time for an update.

I've reached out to some locals

Because I will need someone to translate a document that I can hand out with the hygiene packages I'm planning to make, I thought let's reach out to some locals. There is this wonderful facebook group where a lot of ladies in Budapest are so very helpful each and every time someone is in need for advice or help. This is actually the only reason that I still have a facebook account, because of connecting with those people. They've helped me out several times needing to find a doctor and dentist when I was lost in all the Hungarian information that I couldn't read.. So today I made a post there, to tell them that I'm starting this project to help the homeless with hygiene packages and that I could use donations, and if possible a translator for that document. Because most of the elder people on the street will not understand English, and I don't want to pass them when they are in need, because we have a communication problem.

The response was heartwarming!

Not only did I have the first offer for the translation within maybe half an hour, but when I just checked in again, I saw all these comments and also private messages with all kinds of help offers. Even people that said I can carry stuff, and my son can help to carry etc. I didn't ask for this, I only told them that I would like to start by making 10 packages, to begin with, because I don't have an extra room available to storage everything. So now I know that I will not only have the help of donations to start making some packages, but I also have people that can translate for me, and are willing to help to hand out the packages. Which I will gladly accept because when we are with a few people instead of only myself, it will be much easier to help more people at once. So this is looking very good.

10 toothbrushes and clothes

So, for now, I'm certain by the end of the week I will have 10 toothbrushes bought as a donation by one of the lovely ladies! And I will make sure that I buy 10 packages with toothpaste so that part is covered. And one lady has clothes to donate for men and women, so I am now trying to figure out what exactly, and make a list of the items that people have, so hopefully, I can make some matching sizes packages with it. I'm quite confident that there will be more donations soon, and if not, then I will first collect those donations, and then I hope to have some donations to buy extra needed stuff. There are quite a few second-hand shops with perfectly good clothes that are pretty cheap compared to new items, so together with the donated clothes, this must work.

I'm overwhelmed by the help of those ladies

And I didn't expect or ask for helping hands, but the fact that people are offering to buy toothbrushes or other items and help to carry stuff is wonderful. I'm glad I didn't remove the facebook profile completely otherwise I would not be able to contact all these ladies. I now have the feeling that this project can now be an even bigger success as I was hoping for when I first thought out the plan of the hygiene packages.

Let's see what I've collected by the end of this week

And see how far I will come with making these packages, and maybe we can even start handing out things next week, who knows. I'm quite excited at this point, and I really hope we can help many homeless people with this project. If you want to support this project in any way, please let me know, every bit of help is very welcome, it will be for the good cause! Your help is very much appreciated and I will update the progress of the project here for everyone to read.

Let's make the world a better place together, we can't help every person in need, but we can at least try to contribute in our own possible way. When you see a homeless person, give them your smile, it can brighten up their day <3