CASHPOINT

CASHPOINT

CASHPOINT was one of the more powerful CAS activities that I took part in, this was because I took part in a helping homeless scheme. Homelessness is a global problem, people living in poverty, these people scrape by from day to day and appreciate any help they do get and I wanted to be part of that help, to make a difference for them. Therefore a group from school and I, set out to apply for a cash grant to put together care carepackages for homeless people. These consisted of basic sanitation goods and stuff like gloves and mouthwash. Our grant got accepted and we decided to then go hand out these care packages in a homeless shelter in Richmond. I was interested in seeing the world from the point of view that these people live out of, as I have never lived in poverty and it's important to see the world from another viewpoint to appreciate everything that is given to someone like me. 

Objectives

For this activity I had some basic objectives, I wanted to help these homeless people that live in poverty. Therefore I wanted help attain the cash grant and put together the care packages as well as then go on to give these out to homeless people and talk to some of the people to get a view into their lives and feel like I made a difference. 

Reflection

Upon completing this activity and reflecting upon it, I can say nothing else than that it was a success. We successfully got a grant to put together care packages, with basic hygiene needs in them. Then we went out to buy the supplies. We then got together bags to divide up the supplies, in addition we baked some goodies for the people at the shelter that day. That morning then I went by car to clapham to pick up the care packages as we had a good 50+ of them. We then loaded them up and made our way to the shelter in Richmond. 

(Us on our way to the shelter) 

We then arrived and then started unloading the care packages to the homeless centre. We were then introduced to the people who were there by the the person who was organising the shelter. Then we started going round talking to different people and giving them care packages, and the thing that stuck out to me always was the mood that these people were in, most of them were very jolly people and highly appreciative of what we gave them, also what interested me also was that some of these people were living like this by choice, it was a way of life for them. But it was touching to see how appreciative people were of what we did and therefore it just felt good to go through the process. To conclude I am happy that I took part in the project as I got to get to know some interesting people and see the world from their view and it was good to help these people who have a lot worse troubles in their lives than I have in mine.