By: Jonathan Szydlo/Staff Writer
From spending a night on the streets to feeding politicians, members of Humility Now are no strangers to the struggles and degradation that the homeless endure on a daily basis.
On March 1, Humility Now and Time-Peace, along with a handful of volunteers, gathered in the Downtown Miami area to hand out t-shirts to the homeless as part of the “Love Your Neighbor” collaboration.
In an ongoing mission to develop face-to-face relationships, spreading awareness of the struggles of living on the streets, and acknowledging and recognizing the humanity of the homeless, Humility Now has partnered with Time-Peace as part of the “Love Your Neighbor” campaign.
“Humility Now is a company we met at a market we were working and we got to know the guys and what they do with their organization, [which is] pretty much the shirt for shirt donations, for every one sold, one gets donated to the homeless,” said Ron Muram, a third year University law student and co-founder of Time-Peace. “That was in line with what we like to do as a charitable contribution. Every core philosophy we have, every ideal, everything we speak of is about giving back. It just naturally and logically came together that we’d work with them.”
From the beginning of the year, the two organizations set the initial goal of selling 100 “Love Your Neighbor” shirts in order to distribute 100 shirts to individuals who find themselves sleeping under the stars and on the streets of Downtown Miami.
Roderick Camacho, a sophomore journalism major, found out about the campaign through a Facebook post announcing the two organizations would be meeting at 6:30 p.m. in front of the American Airlines Arena to hand out “over 100 TP/Humility Now shirts to our homeless friends,” and decided to take part in the action.
Humility Now is “based on the idea that true humility counts others more significant than yourself. Through events, campaigns and advocacy, we hope to extend the opportunity to not only serve the homeless in our communities but also acknowledge their humanity through tangible, face-to-face relationships,” according the Humility Now’s website.
“We did something good other than giving out shirts, we started talking to people. I think what they really wanted to hear was us talking to them, figuring out why they got there, and hopefully we can help to keep them from getting back there,” said Muram.
As the group of volunteers made their way through the streets of Downtown Miami, which has 1,347 homeless people on an average night, according to the Camillus House website, the impact of the project could be seen in the faces of the unfortunate.
“Right now, I’m looking at a man who’s wearing a shirt we gave him. The people are very happy and grateful, even if it’s just for a shirt,” Camacho said. “They seem pretty happy about it since they probably don’t get things like this very often, and they see that there are members of the community who care.”
David Merida, 21, and Julio Anta, 20, both students at Miami-Dade College, started Humility Now in November 2009 through their involvement with the Miami Christ Fellowship.
The duo, as a means of gaining a better understanding of the plight of the homeless, began by “dumpster diving” for non-spoilt food which they would hand out to the hungry, and even spent nights on the streets of Downtown Miami, becoming homeless by choice to better understand the homeless situation.
Humility Now’s activism has extended past donations. In early 2010, the City of Miami proposed legislation to ban the feeding of homeless without prior training.
To combat this legislation, Anta and Merida organized groups of homeless people in front of the City of Miami to hand out food to the politicians involved in the proposed legislation, as a means of protest.The legislation never passed.
Humility Now and Time-Peace plan to continue their collaboration, and the Love Your Neighbor campaign, and are expecting another order of shirts in the coming weeks.
“It isn’t only about the shirts. It’s also about the awareness of the shirts, the message on the shirts,” said Ian Koslow, 24, co-founder of Time-Peace. “Everything we do is about spreading awareness.”
As a non-profit homeless advocacy and relief organization, Humility now is constantly seeking out local advocates throughout the United States to assist in the spread of humility. For more information on home to become involved with Humility Now, visit their website at www.humilitynow.com
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