Students sleep outside to raise awareness, funds

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This article was published 15/03/2019 (2537 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Sleeping out in the cold last week was an eye-opening experience for a group of University of Winnipeg students. 

“We have sleeping bags and blankets, but people on the streets, sometimes they don’t even have that and they have to sleep in these temperatures,” Aiseosa Imasuen said. “It’s a real eye-opener.”

Imasuen is co-chair of the 5 Days for the Homeless campaign hosted annually by the school’s Business Administration Students’ Association (BASA). The national campaign challenges university students to forego the comforts of their home for five days to address youth homelessness in Canada. 

In Winnipeg, students from the U of W and University of Manitoba took part to raise money and awareness for Resource Assistance for Youth (RaY) — a holistic resource centre for marginalized youth at 125 Sherbrook St. Over the last decade, local students have raised more than $100,000 for RaY programming. 

This was the third year BASA had organized a 5 Days event on campus and the second year Jacob Sawchyn, an environmental sciences student, joined the cause. 

“I did it last year, had an amazing experience, became great friends with everyone and felt a great sense of purpose in what the whole initiative is about,” he said. 

Imasuen, Sawchyn and first-year business student William Sass slept outside from Monday to Friday and were joined by a handful of other students throughout the week. 

Growing up in what he called a dysfunctional family, Sass said he tries to help out other young people whenever he can. 

“Being part of this group helps me give back and helps the future generations not have to deal with as much as I had to deal with,” he said. “I applied for any position I could and I was just happy to get on.”

The group spent the better part of Monday building the shelter they would stay in for the next five nights. Pallets, cardboard, old student newspapers and tarps were cobbled together to make a structure that could accommodate as many as eight sleepers. 

“We’ve been working on it basically right up until bed, patching up holes and things like that. So much more work goes into it than you could ever imagine,” Sawchyn said.

For everyone, the overnight temperature drop was the hardest part of the campaign — however, there were some unintended benefits.

“The best thing is that we don’t have to take the transit to school in the morning,” Sass said. 

The students attended regular classes throughout the week and were able to head inside when the school opened in the morning. Imasuen acknowledged that most people living on the street don’t have access to safe places to stay warm or security guards watching out for their well-being.

“I’m on the more privileged side of this and I’m still cold at night,” she said. “It’s not good that young people or anyone at all has to sleep outside in this weather.”

“I definitely encourage everyone to give it a try once in their life if they want to gain invaluable insight, empathy and appreciation for people who don’t have home,” Sawchyn added.