Homies Foundation
Homies helping Homies. A new foundation where you and your group of friends can help and support the homeless. Through the Homies Platform your group of friends will be linked to a homeless person. With the support of the foundation, the group of friends can arrange shelter, work and money so that the homeless person can get their life back on track. Sander Schimmelpenninck and founder Steven Borghouts will start a bicycle tour from Amsterdam to Lapland on September 10 to raise money and create awareness for this beautiful foundation.
Homies tells us more!
Who initiated Homies?
On October 9, 2020, Steven met a man on a bench in a sleeping bag: Daniel. Daniel was not doing well and Steven called his friends to help him together. Eleven days later they had arranged shelter, food and money. Daniel was able to bridge the winter with singer songwriter Douwe Bob on his boat. A roof over his head and focused attention made him feel human again! He now lives in a residential community De Wonne in Enschede, he even makes food for other homeless people every day and he has picked up his creative passion again: painting. This success gave rise to the idea for a platform; linking homeless people to groups of friends with a shared mission to get homeless lives back on track. Homies believes that any group of friends can do this. Homies helping Homies!
What’s Homies’ goal?
According to figures from Statistics Netherlands, the number of homeless people has doubled since 2009. It’s a staggering number. With Homies we want to appeal to the younger generation to also do good. They build a community of people who are willing to roll up their sleeves and bring volunteering back on top of mind. The name Homies stands for finding a ‘home’ for the homeless, but also for Homies ‘friends.’ We link economically homeless people to a group of friends. Together with your friends you adopt a homeless person who will help you back into society.
To kick off Homies, Sander Schimmelpenninck and founder Steven Borghouts will ride their bicycle from Amsterdam to Lapland. How did they come up with this idea?
To kick off the Homies Foundation, they go far. Very far. 3,000KM far to be exact. Sander and Steven will get on their bicycles on September 10, 2021 to reach the final destination Lapland straight up through 7 countries, 165 KM per day and within 18 days. “Last year I saw my old buddy from Twente Steven Borghouts cycling to Istanbul for a good cause. A fantastic challenge, but also wonderful to follow, because he gave awesome updates, with many short interviews with people along the way. So catching that when I returned, I asked Steven if I could come along next year. That was allowed! This year we are cycling for Homies, a foundation initiated by Steven that is more relevant than ever. The number of homeless people in Amsterdam has soared and with uncertain times ahead, this is a serious problem. Homies allows groups of friends to ‘adopt’ homeless people and helps them with money, advice and fun,” says Sander Schimmelpenninck.
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