The necessary debate
Welcome HomeLess has been made in order to place homelessness in Europe into focus. Too many people are living in the streets of Copenhagen, Helsinki, Budapest or Madrid and not all of these people are citizens in these cities. They have crossed the European borders in search of a job, a nice place to live or just because they needed to get away from their native countries. But when crossing borders people loose a significant part of their rights, and if some of their dreams of a job and a nice place to live do not come true, they might become lost in the streets.
We believe that it is very important and necessary to generate a Europe-wide debate concerning the rights of homeless Europeans and the many problems they face every day, such as the lack of rights and basic help.
How?
The Welcome HomeLess touring exhibition consists of three parts, and all three parts contribute to form the exhibition as a total.
Since the exhibition is going to be an active part of the EU Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion in 2010, the touring plan is still on the drawing board. We will keep you up dated on this website as the pieces of the puzzle fall into place.
Copenhagen
The initiative behind Welcome HomeLess is Danish, and the pre-opening of the exhibition will happen in Copenhagen in early 2010. We will make sure that the citizens of Copenhagen and the rest of Denmark are all aware of that Welcome HomeLess is being launched.
After a week in Copenhagen, the sculptures will continue on their journey through three other large Danish cities.
Brussels
The European launch of the exhibition will take place in the heart of Europe and the political centre – Brussels. We are working on getting a permission to exhibit the 13 sculptures in or around the European Parliament. The opening of the exhibition in connection to the EU Year will hopefully be done in collaboration with some of the Danish Members of the European Parliament, who also support Welcome HomeLess.
Next stop Europe
After the launch of the exhibition in Brussels, the 13 sculptures will tour through the European capital cities.
Many NGOs in the field of homelessness are giving us their valuable help in organizing the many exhibitions around Europe. They are all a necessary force for Welcome HomeLess in order to ensure good locations and that the hard work during the time of the exhibition is done properly.
As for now we have interested partner NGOs in:
- Luxembourg
And we hope that others will join in too.
If you are an NGO working with the homeless and you want to be a part of Welcome HomeLess, please contact us.