change language
you are in: home - news newslettercontact uslink

Support the Community

  
January 27 2016 | WARSAW, POLAND

Poland is cold, but not indifferent

Poland continues in the cold wave with temperatures that have reached 20° below zero in some locations. More than 50 people have died in just a few days because of the extreme cold. The lives of so many homeless people, without heated housing and shelters, are in danger.

 
printable version

 According to the most optimistic estimates, more than 1,000 homeless people live in Warsaw, many more than the temporary accommodation offered by the municipality and other associations. Every Thursday, the Community of Sant'Egidio distributes dinner and hot drinks to 150 people in two places of the city centre. Moreover, especially in these days of frost, several times a week, it visits dozens of people in the more remote and isolated areas: forests, car parks, dilapidated houses.

 After the Christmas lunch, which hosted 400 poor people at a table set for almost 500 volunteers, a collection of blankets, winter clothes and shoes was organised, but also a campaign for the purchase of stoves that has found many supporters on social networks. These include the well-known journalist Szymon Holownia, who wrote on his blog: "I've been around Warsaw with the Community of Sant'Egidio. I met Edek and Dorota, who for years have lived in a tent near the airport and have now received a container from the friends of Sant'Egidio. There is a stove, the kitchen, a bed ... but above all there is Edek, who was literally pulled out of prison by those of Sant'Egidio. He had ended up there due to an old story, for which he had already served his sentence. And I assure you, if all husbands treated their wives like this, there would not be unhappy marriages”. Calling for help for the homeless, Holownia wrote that "in Sant'Egidio the gap is bridged between those that help and those that are helped and the relationships of friendship, where possible, are equal. The homeless then, in return, offer prayers and wise words, indeed pounds and pounds of meaning in life".

 Thanks to so many articles and television services on the Christmas lunch and the activities of Sant'Egidio, the homeless have become less invisible and more and more people decide to commit to their aid. Another blogger, very popular among young people, after attending the Christmas lunch has appealed on facebook: "Let’s help the homeless! You can’t imagine how much we can receive in return".


 ALSO READ
• NEWS
November 25 2017

Thanksgiving with the poor in New York

IT | EN | ES | FR | PT
August 1 2017
PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA

The Saturday night of Pretoria's Sant'Egidio youth with the poor: story of a contagious solidarity

IT | EN | FR | ID
July 10 2017
MOSCOW, RUSSIA

Summer of solidarity: Moscow's elderly in vacation with homeless friends. WATCH THE PHOTOGALLERY

IT | EN | ES | DE | FR | CA
March 28 2017
MOSCOW, RUSSIA

Homeless gather for prayer in Moscow with Sant'Egidio at the end of the long russian winter

IT | EN | ES | DE | FR
January 16 2017

In these very cold days, I think of and invite you to think of all of the people who live on the streets

IT | EN | ES | DE | FR | PT
May 12 2016
WARSAW, POLAND

The memory of martyrs before the cross broken by bombs

IT | EN | ES | DE | FR | PT | PL
all the news
• PRINT
February 26 2018
Avvenire

Emergenza freddo. Rifugi e parrocchie aperte ai senza dimora

February 26 2018
Avvenire

Emergenza freddo. Rifugi e parrocchie aperte ai senza dimora

February 24 2018
La Repubblica - Ed. Roma

Roma, Burian: arriva il gelo dalla Siberia. "Subito più letti per i clochard”

February 24 2018
Vatican Insider

Maltempo, Sant’Egidio: non lasciamo soli i senza dimora

February 24 2018
Il Sole 24 ore

Emergenza freddo, S. Egidio: non lasciamo soli i senza dimora

February 24 2018
Avvenire

A spasso per Milano aiutando l'Africa

all press releases
• DOCUMENTS

La guida "Dove mangiare, dormire, lavarsi a Napoli e in Campania" 2016

Sintesi, Rapporti, Numeri e dati sulle persone senza dimora a Roma nel 2015

Le persone senza dimora a Roma

Guida DOVE Mangiare, dormire, lavarsi - Padova 2014

all documents

PHOTO

1728 visits

1700 visits

1735 visits

1685 visits
all the related media