Do you "Care for a Story?" student-led grassroots movement
“There’s always something to be done,” stated Dania Hailat, founder and president of Care for a Story,an organization that provides clothing, food and other necessities to homeless people in exchange for stories about their lives. It was founded last semester by Hailat, a senior biology major.
“We go out and we talk to the homeless. We try to gain their trust and once we do, they share their story with us. We ask them if we can record it and afterwards, we take a picture of them with their consent. Then, we type up the story and post it on Instagram and Facebook,” said Hailat. “We try to go there with something to give them, and that’s usually how we start conversations.”
Hailat was inspired to create Care For A Story after reading about something similar online.
“I read online about three high-school kids who started a homeless organization, and I was like, ‘that’s badass, and I want to do something like that!’”
Although Care For A Story has just gone public, it has already started to see growth.
“Last semester was just for preparation and developing connections but now we can get things rolling,” said Hailat. “We’re adding members – I think now we have 15 people when we started with five, and we’re having our first meeting sometime this week!”
Students at USCA can get involved by making donations or by becoming members themselves.
“If anyone wants to join that would be helpful,” she said. “If anyone wants to donate that would be helpful too.”
Donations of any kind are welcome currently. According to Hailat, some items that are needed right now are shoes, socks and hygiene products.
“Students can donate anything, literally anything! Clothes, shoes, food, anything! And, it’s a guarantee that we’re going to give it straight to people and it’s not going to go through a bunch of high-profile organizations first. It’s very grassroots in the fact that it’s literally from us to them.”
Care For A Story takes monetary donations through Paypal and Venmo, and they are planning to host some fundraising events in the near future.
“We’re planning our first fundraiser; it should be towards the end of February. The idea is to buy some tee-shirts, put our logo on it, and then tie-dye them,” said Hailat. “I know with students, you want to make it fun, so we’re going to try to make it a whole event.”
Hailat is excited about collaborating with other groups and for the possibility of a shoe drive.
“I think we’ll be teaming up with an organization in Charlotte. They told us that they would sponsor us if we could set up a shoe drive,” she said. “I’m going to try to get people to donate as many shoes as they can. If we do our job spreading the word, I think it would be really helpful.”
Hailat asks that anyone interested in being involved with Care For A Story reach out to her.
“If anyone wants to help and they don’t know how, just send me a message and we’ll make something good out of it,” Hailat encouraged.
If you would like to make a donation or have questions, you can contact Dania Hailat by calling her at (803) 514-6282 or emailing her at dhailat@usca.edu. You can also follow the organization on Instagram (@careforastory) and Facebook (Care For A Story).
