sponsored content from Jerusalem Farm

My name is Abdullahi Islow. I am in 9th grade and attend Ryogoku Soccer Academy. My parents are from Somalia and I have 10 siblings. The great thing about having a lot of siblings is that they are always funny, energetic, and I get a lot of gifts for my birthday. They also support me by giving me life advice so I can be a better person.

    As a student at Ryogoku Soccer Academy, we are required to do a Passion Project. A Passion Project is a real world problem that you are passionate about solving. My topic was Helping the Houseless with Resources. I was inspired to take action when I saw a video of someone helping out a houseless person. When I saw the houseless person’s face light up, I knew I wanted to do the same thing in my neighborhood.

    The problem for houseless people in Kansas City is they do not have an environment to keep themselves clean. To help fix this problem, I talked to the pastor of Independence Boulevard Christian Church (IBCC), Mindy Fugarino. I talked to her about passing out hygiene packs and giving out free haircuts on Mondays. She said that would be a good thing to do for the houseless community. Each Monday, IBCC and Micah Ministry give out a lot of things to the houseless such as clothing, food, and medical care through Care Beyond the Boulevard. 

Next, I spoke to Mattie Rhodes. An employee named Alexis talked to us about houseless people around the world and other community projects we could do to bring awareness to this problem. He said Mattie Rhodes was wanting to help by donating hygiene packs to hand out.

I also talked to and organized two local barbers to give out free haircuts to some of the houseless while they waited in line for their meal. One of their names was Amy. While Amy was cutting hair, I noticed a lot of houseless people felt nice and looked good. I thought this was a successful part of my project. 

Lastly, me and my teacher talked to Soap KC to donate 3 buckets of hand sanitizer. Hand sanitizer is important because when people usually get their meals their hands aren’t clean and that can lead to diseases and other health issues. Soap KC was happy to help me with my project. 

Even though I cannot get people out of being houseless, I want them to look very clean in the streets without people knowing they are houseless. This may help them get more positive attention and even find a job to support themselves during hard times. 

I would like to thank everyone for supporting me during my passion project and also everything they did to contribute. Especially my teammates. They helped me pass out the hygiene packs on Monday and that was very nice of them. I would also like to thank Jerusalem Farm for allowing me to share my story.