Homeless People Want Pictures of Their Kids, Too

More and more, the homeless people of our cities include a large number of families with children. Most of these families have learned how to survive, but just barely. Many things the average person considers necessities of life seem to be unattainable luxuries to those who are unfortunate enough to become homeless.
Photo by Sean--Wikimedia Commons

One such luxury is having pictures of their children as they grow. Just imagine how you would feel if every picture of your children or other family members suddenly disappeared. Of course there are worse tragedies than the loss of a few pictures, but I love to look at the pictures of my children when they were small and remember the fun times we had as they grew to adulthood.

Usually, homeless people have no such record.

Linda Salgado, a mother in Eugene, Oregon, got to thinking about that one day after looking at the pictures she had of her own children and decided to do something about it.

Armed with a camera, Linda wandered around a spot where homeless people gathered during the day in Eugene, and took pictures of the homeless people and their children there. After taking the pictures, she went to a nearby store, had digital prints made, and took them back to give to the parents of the children.

The project was such a huge success that Linda has continued, now carrying a couple of portable photo printers on her picture taking outings and has enlisted several other enthusiastic people to help her.

Today, the free photos have become so popular that Linda and her friends have had to resort to several methods of raising money to cover the cost of printer ink and photo paper. Some of these ways have included setting up a donation jar at a booth at a local farmer’s market, staging a photo shoot to raise money at a church she attends, and getting the St. Vincent DePaul organization to help sponsor her efforts. A website donation account has raised a few dollars, and she is now applying for a grant from the Pepsi Refresh Project.

Try to think of how you would feel with no photos in your life. Would you forget how your baby looked when he first began to smile; and how about that priceless photo of your first-grader grinning—minus their two front teeth? Would you forget what a parent that died when you were even young looked like if you didn’t have a photo to remind you now and then? And who doesn’t like to look back at their own wedding picture and see how they looked 40 pounds ago and without all those wrinkles.

If you have a gathering place for the homeless in your city, think about getting a group together to start a similar project. Imagine how precious a photo of you and your little ones would be if you were the homeless one.


If you’d like to read more about the Eugene, Oregon, photos for the homeless project check it out here: http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/cityregion/24792548-41/calacin-project-eugene-pictures-gerald.csp