How can your old video games make a difference in the lives of homeless children?
One out of every 50 children in America will be homeless at some time in their lives. Many homeless children are still infants and toddlers. More than 1.5 million of our nation's children go to sleep without a home each year.
We seldom see America's homeless children because most are living in shelters, cars, and campgrounds, out of sight of normal communities. They are isolated and scared, and their parents are frustrated and desperate.
These homeless children are often unsafe and underfed. They are without proper schooling and health care and do not have supportive communities to see to their needs. For them, homelessness can be a life-altering experience that inflicts deep and lasting emotional wounds, chronic illness, and sometimes even results in death.
Try to imagine what it would feel like if all you had to look forward to every day was ... scrounging for food, clothing, pocket money, and a place to spend the night. There are times when you may think your life is hard. But, if you have food in your refrigerator, clothes in your closet, a bed to sleep in, and a roof over your head, you are already richer than 75% of the world's population.
Just picture how your life compares to that of a homeless child. For homeless kids, every night brings uncertainty and fear about the coming day. These boys and girls feel isolated and cut off from the normal children's world. Their pleas for help go unanswered. How can we tell these homeless children that they do matter and that they have not been abandoned by the rest of us?
Now, is your opportunity to help make a difference by putting to use some familiar things that may be gathering dust in your own homes. Chances are that you have old video games that you no longer use. Now, you can easily turn these old video games into support for homeless children. Of course, these video games themselves are of no use to these children in the conditions in which they now live. But, we can turn your old video games into cash that will be used to provide desperately needed support for homeless children.
