Belvedere College students take part in sleep out for homeless charities

Belvedere College students in Dublin city are hoping to break their record for raising money for charities that work with homeless people during this year’s sleep out, which takes place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

This year the sleep out will extend to transition year students who will sleep out in their gardens instead of on the streets, as the more senior pupils have been doing annually for almost four decades.

More than 250 students, teachers and past pupils will raise funds for Focus Ireland, Peter McVerry Trust and Home Again, in the school’s 39th annual sleep out.

[ Life in a homeless hub: ‘I have nowhere to go... If I’m upset, I get under my bed’ ]

The senior students will be sleeping in the college grounds and outside the GPO on O’Connell Street. The college jazz band and the college orchestra will be live on the streets to join the students as they sing carols, adding some seasonal spirit to the endeavour.

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Students will also be cutting hair – one of the students is a member of a charity that offers barber services to homeless people.

Sleep-out organiser Cian O’Byrne said this sleep out was more important than ever. “It has been a record year for homelessness figures with more than 11,000 people now homeless.”

[ Record number of homeless people in State as figure passes 11,000 ]

Over the past two years, during the pandemic, students slept in their gardens and raised €100,000. “So we are continuing the garden sleep-outs as well as the on-street in Dublin this year,” said O’Byrne.

The students also said they have made a good start at breaking the record, with the garden sleepers having started last weekend and raised almost €100,000 from their online donations on their JustGiving page.

Donations for the three-day sleep out can be made on the street during the event – credit and debit cards accepted – or online. Details of the sleep out are also available on Instagram; Twitter; and TikTok, @sleepoutdublin.