Tweet Unites Homeless Man & Daughter: Project Underheard & Twitter Give Homeless New Yorkers a Voice
Posted: Saturday, February 26, 2011
by Jennifer Stewart
Stepping out of History
One of the most amazing things about this age we live in is how easily and quickly people can connect. Move over Google and Facebook. It’s Twitter that’s really engaging people and uniting them. Everybody knows now about how it’s revolutionizing the Middle East, but that’s not all. Miracles are happening all over the place.
One such miracle happened to a 58 year-old homeless man living in New York, Danny Morales. Originally from Puerto Rico, Morales moved to the US – specifically to Harlem. In 2010 he lost his job and his home. He also lost his daughter, Sarah Rivera, now 27. The last time they saw each other was in 2000, when they were living together in Puerto Rico.
Morales managed not to get swallowed up by the despair that can overwhelm the homeless. He was living at the New York City’s Rescue Mission shelter and volunteered to be part of New York’s advocacy initiative, a project named “Underheard in New York”. It was started by three interns of an advertizing agency, Bartle Bogle Hegarty. Rosemary Melchio, Robert Weeks and Willy Wang were told by their bosses to do something good and to do it famously.
They decided to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless in New York, so they created the project Underheard in New York. They gave four homeless men their own pre-paid cell phones on February 2, and a month of unlimited texting. The four men in this project are Danny (@putodanny), Derrick (@awitness2011), Albert (@albert814) and Carlos (@jessie550). They joined Twitter and were instructed to tweet to the world about their lives and the challenges they face every day.
For Danny, it has already turned his life around. He has 3,000 followers from around the world. One of his tweets was a photograph of his daughter Sarah. A follower went to Facebook and found her! News of the story reached CNN en Espanol, and the two were reunited on Friday in Bryant Park. Danny hadn’t know he had grandchildren even, and he met them for the first time – 4 year-old Navaeh Cuff, and 1 year-old Akai Carranza.
Even though connection between father and daughter was a tweet away, let’s not forget how that can actually be impossible for some people.
Being homeless with no income means not being able to get to a computer, not having a cell phone, probably not knowing anything about Twitter or Facebook.
Carlos, who grew up in Queens, worked as a paralegal for 26 years. Then he was injured in an accident with a drunk driver. While still in hospital he lost his apartment, and had nowhere to go when he was discharged. He hasn’t wanted to tell his friends and family, and his biggest dream is to get on his feet independently. He wants to start a business where he can use his Master’s and all his years of work experience.
One of the hardest things he has to deal with is the stereotype that homeless people are lazy. Every day he walks 70 blocks from Lower Manhattan to the New York Public Library – where he can only use the internet for 45 minutes. He longs for better resources – a Metrocard, a netbook and internet access.
Derrick is also originally from New York. He became homeless when he lost his job as an intake coordinator. He believes that people are prejudiced about the homeless and don’t realize homelessness can happen to anybody. He said that surviving on the street is a “herculean effort” and would like to be able to help other homeless people with job-hunting and how to get resources most people don’t know about. He loves jazz, and his dream is to have his own business, an entertainment facility for Christians.
Albert is from the Dominican Republic. He came to the US from Haiti in 1992, when he sought asylum. He is now applying for permanent residence. He has been homeless since 2008. He worked as a welder before being laid off because his eyesight had been too badly affected by the job. He’s attending chef school and his dream is to get his certificate and find a cooking job. He has a ten year-old son.
Project Underheard in New York will end when Melchior’s, Wang’s and Week’s internships are over, but that’s a way off, and they are hoping it will spawn other similar projects.
Morales managed not to get swallowed up by the despair that can overwhelm the homeless. He was living at the New York City’s Rescue Mission shelter and volunteered to be part of New York’s advocacy initiative, a project named “Underheard in New York”. It was started by three interns of an advertizing agency, Bartle Bogle Hegarty. Rosemary Melchio, Robert Weeks and Willy Wang were told by their bosses to do something good and to do it famously.
They decided to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless in New York, so they created the project Underheard in New York. They gave four homeless men their own pre-paid cell phones on February 2, and a month of unlimited texting. The four men in this project are Danny (@putodanny), Derrick (@awitness2011), Albert (@albert814) and Carlos (@jessie550). They joined Twitter and were instructed to tweet to the world about their lives and the challenges they face every day.
For Danny, it has already turned his life around. He has 3,000 followers from around the world. One of his tweets was a photograph of his daughter Sarah. A follower went to Facebook and found her! News of the story reached CNN en Espanol, and the two were reunited on Friday in Bryant Park. Danny hadn’t know he had grandchildren even, and he met them for the first time – 4 year-old Navaeh Cuff, and 1 year-old Akai Carranza.
Even though connection between father and daughter was a tweet away, let’s not forget how that can actually be impossible for some people.
“One of the hardest things he has to deal with is the stereotype that homeless people are lazy.”
Carlos, who grew up in Queens, worked as a paralegal for 26 years. Then he was injured in an accident with a drunk driver. While still in hospital he lost his apartment, and had nowhere to go when he was discharged. He hasn’t wanted to tell his friends and family, and his biggest dream is to get on his feet independently. He wants to start a business where he can use his Master’s and all his years of work experience.
One of the hardest things he has to deal with is the stereotype that homeless people are lazy. Every day he walks 70 blocks from Lower Manhattan to the New York Public Library – where he can only use the internet for 45 minutes. He longs for better resources – a Metrocard, a netbook and internet access.
Derrick is also originally from New York. He became homeless when he lost his job as an intake coordinator. He believes that people are prejudiced about the homeless and don’t realize homelessness can happen to anybody. He said that surviving on the street is a “herculean effort” and would like to be able to help other homeless people with job-hunting and how to get resources most people don’t know about. He loves jazz, and his dream is to have his own business, an entertainment facility for Christians.
Albert is from the Dominican Republic. He came to the US from Haiti in 1992, when he sought asylum. He is now applying for permanent residence. He has been homeless since 2008. He worked as a welder before being laid off because his eyesight had been too badly affected by the job. He’s attending chef school and his dream is to get his certificate and find a cooking job. He has a ten year-old son.
Project Underheard in New York will end when Melchior’s, Wang’s and Week’s internships are over, but that’s a way off, and they are hoping it will spawn other similar projects.
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Top-level comments on this article: (6 total)That's how Karma is eh? It brings people together no matter how far they are through any possible medium. I've had such experiences of meeting one of the best people through the internet and we shared a good friendship for a long time.Exactly, that's why we can't give up hope when we need something. We can't see how it can possibly happen but that's only because our vision is pretty limited!
One more story about how modern technology brings people together. Thanks for sharing, Jennifer!Pleasure, Danny, thanks for commenting.
Great article, Jen. Thanks for sharing it with us. I've been neck deep this week in research on internet crime and this article cleared some of the depressing fog from my brain! It restored some of my confidence that good can come from our computers. :-)Pleasure, Linda - internet crime is so ghastly, I'm glad my article gave you a reprieve.
It's amazing the way that increased communication is changing our world. Can you imagine what's going to happen if we ever make contact with another world, and it can't be that far off, I'll bet. Nice article Jenn.It is, totally amazing, David.
i wish Twiter never fire its Users, or put limit on bad users, i am happy to have you as a friend even when i am not a SearchWarp member. Yosef Iranman,
This is incredible! Love these reunion stories -
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