My name is Sepehr Dashtipour. I was born and raised in Sweden, and now live in England. My heritage is Persian. Sepehr means sky, or the heavens, in Farsi. Friends and family call me Sep.

I’ve traveled around Asia for the past 5 months, visiting countries such as Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and India before heading to the Philippines. I first arrived in Manila around end of July; I liked it so much that I decided to come back in September. I fell in love with Manila, a metropolis bigger than my hometown London, but a place where I met warm, kind-hearted and hospitable locals.

Walking around the streets of Manila, I noticed homeless families with young children, some are as young as 2 years old, which made me really want to do something about it. Talking to a lot of locals and some homeless people as well, I’ve learned that there are different faces of homelessness in Manila, and each has a different story to tell. There is the migrant worker who chooses to live on the streets to save transport money; then the beggars who scavenge for food and beg for money; and third, the homeless who, because of unfortunate circumstances (like personal tragedies or family issues), no longer have a house to come home to.

Because I have organized fundraising events in the past in London, where together with friends we raised funds for a number of tragedies around the world, including Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines and the earthquake in Nepal, I wanted to do something about the homeless in Manila. I shared the idea with friends and Erwin Dato and Leia Marohombsar offered their support; and thus, the Homeless in Manila project came about. I will be living homeless on the streets for 7 days in order to raise awareness and raise money for the homeless people. We will document and share photos and videos on our Facebook page Homeless in Manila (@homelessinmanila), so that we can provide you a glimpse of how it is like to be homeless.

However, living on the streets in Manila (or anywhere in the world) is dangerous, especially for a foreigner like me. I can get beaten up, assaulted and taken advantage of. @Gawad Kalinga (GK) or “give care,” a charity based in the Philippines and the project’s beneficiary, has shown us some areas where I can potentially stay without any implications. GK works with poor communities in the Philippines. Their aim is “to end poverty for 5 million families, by first restoring the dignity of the poor.” Living homeless within a GK-sponsored community means that I will be safer, but not necessarily 100% safe. Regardless of the risks and difficulties, I am determined to do this project in order to raise awareness and raise money for the homeless.

Our goal is to raise PHP 165,000, which is about £2,600 or $3,300. This amount will feed 50 homeless children in a GK-sponsored community for 1 year.