When Amélie Godefroid first arrived in Washington from Kortrijk, Belgium, she remembers being shocked by the number of homeless people she saw on the streets. “Homelessness is much more hidden in Belgium,” she observed. “I wanted to join the Homelessness Civic Engagement Project to learn about homelessness in the U.S., and to become an advocate for homeless children.”
Amélie studies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven [1], and is in the Media and Communications Program. During this past fall semester, she completed an internship with Double R Productions [2], a woman-owned communications firm in Washington. She and two other Media and Communication students, Scott Phillips from Richard Stockton College of New Jersey [3] and Blake Bomier from Wake Forest University [4], all volunteered with the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project [5]. The project seeks to reduce the negative effects of homelessness on children by providing them with toys, snacks, and most importantly, interaction with volunteers like Amelie, Scott and Blake.
The three students decided to use their production skills to make a promotional video that would help the organization raise money for the Children of the American Revolution's Christmas Tea and Bazaar. “A lot of the kids we filmed had never seen a camera before,” said Amélie. “At first they kept posing because they thought we were taking pictures, not moving images. When they realized what we were doing, they danced, sang and played for the camera. The joy I saw in them melted my heart.”
Inspired by the staff and volunteers she met while filming, Amélie wants to do more to address the problem of homelessness in Europe, which she believes should focus more on addressing this issue as a distinct policy area.
[Read more about the Homeless Children's Playtime Project] [5]
