There is no doubt in my mind that some of you have come to hear of the amazing Hadracha Bet campaign which recently took place. Whilst there was no glamourous trip to Kiev or Berlin due to COVID-19, this did not stop the Had Bet-niks pulling it out of the bag and raising some money for a worthy cause. I have been in conversation with two of the amazing fundraisers, Albie Jackson and Libbi Wise to talk more about what they did and why they did it. Below are their responses to some of my questions.
What was the aim of the campaign?
Albie- Hadracha Bet were shocked to find out that there are 110,000 young people facing homelessness in the UK alone. The severity and widespread nature of the issue made us want to make a contribution, regardless how small, to help reduce the issue. As fellow youngsters, we made it our aim to help people who are similar ages to us have the best chance in life. We therefore set ourselves a very high target of raising £2,000 for a charity that focusses on ending youth homelessness.
Why did you take part?
Libbi- To a lot of us, the best thing about Had Bet was the opportunity to plan and take part in our own campaign. Being able to have our own platform for change and be in the position to direct it in whatever way we liked was really exciting. As a group, there were so many causes we wanted the campaign to be for- the biggest challenge was deciding just one. I personally wanted to take part as I knew so little about the reality of youth homelessness in the UK. It’s hard to comprehend how these young adults are the same age us yet living such different lives. This campaign gave us all the opportunity to use our privileged position to try and improve these lives to give them all better opportunities for the future.
What was the cause/charity you fundraised for?
Albie- The charity we decided to donate our fundraising efforts towards was an organization named ‘End Youth Homelessness’ who are currently helping over 30,000 vulnerable young people at the moment. The main reason for choosing this particular charity was because we were adamant on finding long term solutions towards ending youth homelessness and we knew they would be putting our money to good use by ensuring young people have access to basic accommodation, education and the necessary support to ensure they have a fair chance in life.
What did you do to raise money?
Albie- To raise money, we decided as a collective to fundraise by walking or cycling 1100Km, representing the 110,000 young people who are not fortunate enough to have a home, in the space of two weeks. We each created personal Justgiving pages and reached out to family and friends, raising a grand total of £2,784, exceeding our original target of £2,000.
What was the hardest part of the fundraising experience?
Libbi- The hardest part was definitely getting yourself out the house every day, 7k is actually a lot longer than you think! It was so easy to put it off throughout the day until it was 8pm and you still had 12,000 steps to do! Slowly we all got into a bit of a routine and really got committed into each doing our bit. There were definitely days where none of us did as much as we should have, but we had some absolute heroes (thanks Theo and Tovy) who did extra miles for those who had missed out. It was a real team effort and the encouragement from everyone made it a lot easier to face the cold/wind/rain and occasionally sun for the two weeks.
How can you (and anyone else) continue to help with this aim and cause?
Libbi- Although our two weeks of walking is over, it definitely doesn’t stop there. There are so many amazing charities and organisations however support for this cause can be done in so many different ways and doesn’t have to be as big a task as it may seem. Even if you haven’t got the time to commit, everyone can begin to have more of these important conversations about youth homelessness to ensure that these individuals are not left with an unfair position for their future.
Thank you to Libbi and Albie for their comments, to all of the participants for giving up time for such an amazing cause, and to anyone who donated. I think I speak on behalf of all of us when I say what an amazing job the Had Bet-niks did and expressing how incredibly proud of them we all are.
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