Depaul Slovakia: Breakfast for the Homeless

A month ago we faced a terrible accident in our city in which a private hostel burned to the ground. The hostel was mainly used by people from a lower social class. Due to the lack of social housing in Bratislava, people with limited resources are often living on streets or using this type of hostel for accommodation. In the hostel three people died and another 30 became homeless in just couple of hours with all of their possessions lost in flames.

We opened our nightshelter for those who survived: the first night eleven people came from this hostel and three people are still living in our Shelter St. Vincent de Paul until today. Our street workers were searching and helping those who lost everything, but did not come to our shelter. Since this tragedy we are communicating with municipalities to prepare a strategy to avoid similar crises in the future.

Cooking with volunteers

Last year we started a very special project called GULÁŠOVANIE (goulash party). The concept is very simple: a group of volunteers meet in our Nightshelter St. Vincent de Paul and prepare a soup for 160-200 of our clients. This project was very successful in attracting volunteers into our project and connecting them with our work and with homeless people. Volunteers are always leaving the nightshelter very encouraged as they always generate big smiles on more than 160 hungry faces of people who appreciate the warm soup in the cold days more than anything else.

Since the beginning more than 300 volunteers were involved in “gulášovanie” and prepared 4 200 litres of soup. We plan to keep this project running and maybe even expand it to get more volunteers involved on regular basis. 

Donation for Mr. Kilian

Mr. Kilian is a very special client to us. He used to be a sailor for more than 26 years. But when he returned to his home country there was nobody waiting for him. He had some tough years which he spent on streets. After a certain time living on streets his health deteriorated and he ended up in our Shelter St. Louise for sick homeless people. In the shelter we helped him and now, Mr Kilian, feels better again. We started to work with him on searching for a place, something that he could call home. Unfortunately, he has a debt on a social insurance which blocks him from this move. To repay the debt 20% has to be paid in the first instalment. We decided to help Mr. Kilian to start his new life and we organized a financial collection to pay his first instalment. After he pays the first instalment he will be able to pay the rest which will come in smaller amounts. To our surprise we collected the needed sum within two days after we started collection. We are happy and thankful to our donors that we all can be part of this story and we can give this special man a second chance to start his life all over again.