When I was a child, I wanted to live on the street. I would go to school with my hair pulled up in two braids and I would see the people who lived on the street, and I would think: How lucky, they don't have to braid their hair to leave the house, and they don't have an hour to go back home! They seemed to me the height of freedom.
When I grew up, I learned that the search for a home sometimes leads you to mistake a bottle or a syringe for a home. And that is where you feel safe. Homeless people suffer the chains of these atrocious addictions, which bring so much profit to the owners of the shadows, they suffer the rejection of people with homes, who see their fear of poverty personified in people who have a cardboard roof over their heads. And it is very easy to get there. When I grew up, I understood that living on the street is hardly ever a choice, an act of freedom.
Today, 25 November, is Homeless People's Day. And we want to remember them today and every day: their poverty, their defencelessness and their vulnerability touch our hearts. That is why this year they have been the protagonists of our picture book competition "La gente también cuenta" (people tell stories too), which we organised with the slogan: "La gente sin hogar también cuenta" (Homeless people are also important). About ten entries were submitted, but this time it was the homeless people from the San Martín de Porres shelter who won our picture book competition.
We are in the process of editing their book. We would have liked it to be ready for this special day, but it has not been possible. In a few months, we will have it ready.
In the meantime, here are some of the illustrations that will make up our book.
