Where The Streets Have No Name (2010) - Feature (Documentary) - video Dailymotion

Film Gorillas

Where the Streets Have No Name (2010)  1h 16min | Documentary, Biography | May 2010 (USA)    Providing the three basic necessities of life to survive - food, shelter and clothing can be quite a task. An emotional journey seen through the eyes of one man who has been working tirelessly for 20 years trying alleviate homelessness in Cairns. A hair raising experience as we get into the lives of these street kids, hear their stories and unfold the bitter reality that lies beneath this beautiful paradise island. Backed with real life incidents, diverse stories and interaction with people who are making this mission impossible successful, makes this documentary more inspiring. It is a dark, intimate and unforgettable journey revealing the truth which most of us choose to be oblivious of. Where the streets have no name today tells a different story!    Director: Vijaykumar Mirchandani

Transcript

00:00:00Growing up in Germany in 1961, during a geography lesson at school, we saw a film about Australia

00:00:14and the freedom that people have here, the way people live and everybody was equal, there

00:00:18was no class distinction, all those type of things.

00:00:20I decided on my home already that that's the place where I wanted to be.

00:00:50So when I came to Australia, at the age of 19, I landed in Sydney on the 18th of September

00:00:591969, at ten minutes to seven in the morning.

00:01:02It's very significant because it's the biggest and best step I did in my life.

00:01:06In 1979, I was drawn to come up to Cairns.

00:01:10In this beautiful city of ours, the streets have a story to tell.

00:01:20Just looking at a tree reminds me of the story when it all started.

00:01:38My wife and I and two of my children walked along here and we saw young people, boys and

00:01:44girls, 14, 15, 16 years old, around about midnight hanging around here.

00:01:49There were benches here, they were playing around and what we saw was a young man, about

00:01:5414, 15 years old and an old man, about 65, sitting at a bench.

00:02:00As we walked past, we saw something very peculiar.

00:02:04We saw this old man's hand creeping up the young boy's thigh.

00:02:08So I said to my wife, Sally, I need to find out what's going on here.

00:02:11Something isn't right.

00:02:13And as I walked back, I saw this young boy and the old man walking off.

00:02:18And so I was very curious.

00:02:20I asked some of the other children here what this young boy is doing with the old man,

00:02:25because the boy is indigenous, the guy was white.

00:02:28And the kids said, well, he's just having sex with the old man to buy some food.

00:02:32Well, I was stunned.

00:02:34I said back to my wife and said, listen, these kids have to have sex to buy food in our

00:02:39beautiful city of Cairns, a city I love, in a country I love.

00:02:44Coming home after this walk and experience on the Esplanade, we just sat around the

00:02:49table and my wife and I and my two boys, and we were just wondering what has happened,

00:02:54what have we seen in our city, in our place that we love so much.

00:02:58We're used to this happening in third world countries, but not in Australia and not in Cairns.

00:03:05The growth is about four percent year after year after year.

00:03:09Cairns is not a bad place to be when people are coming here like that.

00:03:13And of course, this attracts people who think they can come here and get a job and

00:03:19eventually find that they're in difficulty with it and their children become in difficult

00:03:25circumstances.

00:03:26Back in those late 80s, early 90s, kids were beginning to be taught that they could do

00:03:33whatever they like.

00:03:34They had no rules and no bounds.

00:03:37So if they didn't like their own home life, they walked out of it.

00:03:42I think one factor that's often not taken into account is the weather.

00:03:48If you're homeless, a lot of people would rather sleep out in Cairns than Sydney or

00:03:54Melbourne.

00:03:54As somebody from the suburbs, I didn't really know a lot about the homelessness in Cairns

00:04:01until Harold brought it up for me.

00:04:04That was an eye opener.

00:04:06I never actually knew that there was a lot of street people living in Cairns and to find

00:04:11out that there was actually kids living on the street and not having food or shelter

00:04:16actually really broke my heart.

00:04:18Like any city in Australia, we've got some people who fall into really hard times.

00:04:23Our own residents, kids who leave home because they just can't stay there any longer.

00:04:29Families that break up and have no resources and become homeless.

00:04:34But also we have in Cairns people who've come here looking for a better way.

00:04:38Sometimes we discover these are kids who've travelled all the way from Melbourne.

00:04:43People who see Cairns because of its lovely weather as another chance, another place to

00:04:47go, a hope for a new life.

00:04:55When we were young, we used to go for a family walk down the Esplanade this time and we were

00:04:59going for a walk one night and something caught Dad's eye.

00:05:01He went over to see what it was and he didn't talk about it much on the rest of our walk.

00:05:06We got home that night, Mum and Dad were having a discussion about Dad seeing some street

00:05:10kids, some kids living on the street with no food and no place to stay that night.

00:05:12We can't rely on the government.

00:05:14We can't rely on the police.

00:05:16It's not their job to look after these kids.

00:05:18There should be somebody there, somebody from the city, but we had no idea what to do.

00:05:22Then little Grant, who was 11 at the time, he just out of the blue comes with the idea,

00:05:27Dad, why don't we take some meals out?

00:05:29Why don't we cook them up and you take them out?

00:05:30Because he sees it very simple.

00:05:32If you don't eat, you don't live.

00:05:34So we've got to give them food.

00:05:36Simple as that.

00:05:37Of course, I'm a Christian, so therefore I don't do things easily.

00:05:41I pray for a little while and I prayed over the weekend.

00:05:44On Monday when I was working in my office and my secretary came to me and said, look,

00:05:50I've got a young boy out in the waiting room.

00:05:52He has a sore back and he's a street kid.

00:05:54He's got no money.

00:05:56And he wondered if you could help him.

00:05:58And I said, well, yeah, well, just make him wait for a moment and I'll see how I can fit

00:06:03him in.

00:06:04And the boy waited and then he came eventually for treatment.

00:06:07And I said, listen, I've seen this last Friday night on the street.

00:06:11And my wife and my sons came up with what we should be doing.

00:06:14And he said, well, that's a great idea.

00:06:17And I said, why is that?

00:06:18He said, well, a lot of kids, that's all they do is they prostitute themselves.

00:06:21They mug the tourists and they do break and enters and steal from bullies and so on because

00:06:26they need food.

00:06:27And if we supply that, they don't have to do it for that.

00:06:34And once we started, of course, with the idea of going out on the food van, we had a real

00:06:39idea of how many kids would there be.

00:06:41So we start off with 20 or 30 meals initially, but we finished up quite quickly cooking up

00:06:45to 40, 50 meals.

00:06:47And we used to go out on a Thursday, on a Friday night, feeding those young people from

00:06:50the boot of the car.

00:06:52And we had kids lined up waiting for me to open the boot, bringing up the esky and bringing

00:06:58out the cordial.

00:06:59We didn't know what to do in containers.

00:07:01So we got old margarine containers initially.

00:07:03My dad used to do a lot of cooking, cook a couple of food and my brothers and I would

00:07:07help out and help put the containers and package them all up.

00:07:10It was actually a fun, fun family thing we do every Friday night.

00:07:12First week of November, I had dinner with my children, something dawned on me.

00:07:17And it dawned on me that my children don't just eat on Thursday on a Friday, that my

00:07:22children, in fact, eat seven days a week, three meals a day and many trips to the fridge

00:07:27in between.

00:07:28So I had to reconsider what I was doing.

00:07:31And I was thinking to myself, what I'm doing now is I'm saying, OK, for two days a week,

00:07:35you don't have to prostitute yourself.

00:07:37For two days a week, you don't have to mug any tourists.

00:07:40For two days a week, we're going to give you the food.

00:07:42But for the other five days, it's OK.

00:07:44So once I had that revelation, we started going every single night from the 1st of November.

00:07:49We have not missed a single night on the street yet.

00:07:52Then we had to think what we're going to do with the finances.

00:07:55So that wasn't all that hard to do.

00:07:57We just decided, well, we'll take less time for ourselves.

00:08:01Well, it costs money.

00:08:02We do things a lot cheaper.

00:08:04So instead of going to a movie or something like that, which costs $10, we went down the

00:08:08park and had a picnic or something like that.

00:08:10The good thing was is that having a family that's supportive right from the start is

00:08:15that their kids knew they will have to make sacrifices to do what we're doing.

00:08:19We'd have everything we needed, not everything we wanted, but definitely everything that

00:08:22we needed.

00:08:22I told my friends at school what we're doing.

00:08:24And at first, they didn't really believe me that there are kids out there that need food.

00:08:26But we packed up a lot of food for someone.

00:08:28So there'll be a lot of kids out there somewhere.

00:08:30People become homeless for all sorts of reasons.

00:08:33Often there could be drugs involved or domestic violence or social problems at home.

00:08:38Also, we have a problem with Indigenous people from the Cape with the alcohol bans have come

00:08:43down some people because they can get alcohol down here.

00:08:48It's the way of life that has changed today, where both parents more or less have to work.

00:08:54Children are left on their own and well, marriages break up and one partner doesn't

00:09:01want the children.

00:09:02Your partner doesn't want the children.

00:09:04So they're out on the street.

00:09:06The majority of people I find, there's a lot of them that put themselves on the street

00:09:10purposely because they don't like the rules at home or because, well, they don't like

00:09:17authority figures.

00:09:18Drugs is a huge issue in our society.

00:09:20My generation has grown up with drugs in school as a common thing.

00:09:24If you hear about someone on drugs, it's not it's not a shock to you.

00:09:27It's normality to hear about a kid not on drugs.

00:09:30This is getting closer to being a shock.

00:09:31If this is a society where kids are, I mean, you're putting them on the streets.

00:09:35How can they be safe?

00:09:37Frank Kelly, she was the oldest of five kids.

00:09:42So there's six all out.

00:09:43And her mother used to feed her speed and keep her up all night to look after the kids

00:09:49and her mother would just go out partying.

00:09:50She'd been doing that to her ever since she was about seven years of age.

00:09:53There are a fair few sincere, genuine cases where the parents, the uncles are abusing

00:10:00the nieces or, you know, the parents that could have bad gambling addictions or all

00:10:07the money goes on poking machines and there's no food in the houses.

00:10:11Girl about 16 had been coming for some time and I sat down with her.

00:10:16I said, how's your week been?

00:10:17She said, it's been a good week.

00:10:19I said, I'm so pleased.

00:10:21And she said, I was only raped once this week.

00:10:25Now for her, that was a good week.

00:10:27I said, well, how often does this happen?

00:10:29This isn't normal, you know?

00:10:31And she said, oh, usually only about six or seven times.

00:10:36I said, well, that is not normal.

00:10:38And we're going to do something about that.

00:10:41So when you hear that, that was a good week because the kid was only raped once to me

00:10:48was just horrific.

00:10:49I must say, I cried all the way home that night and it was very disturbing.

00:10:54My main friend when I was living on the streets, Mary, she was a year younger than me.

00:10:57We grew up best friends together, living next door to each other in Sydney.

00:11:02And she'd been raped by her father for about eight years.

00:11:07And her mother just used to always get bashed and that.

00:11:12She ended up becoming like a hermit sort of thing, just went into her own world,

00:11:16never associated with anybody.

00:11:17She decided she'd come and stay with me on the streets.

00:11:20And she turned to drugs really heavy.

00:11:23She went into them a lot worse than I did.

00:11:26And at the age of 15, she committed suicide.

00:11:32She hung herself off a bridge in Penrith.

00:11:35Cairns was the pedophile capital of Australia.

00:11:40I guess because a lot of the kids can come here from all over.

00:11:44We have them from Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth.

00:11:48Because you can sleep out most nights of the year, it's warm enough.

00:11:52And there's a couple of other, they're not shelters,

00:11:56but they're hostels where they can take two or three kids a night.

00:12:00But the rest of the time, down on the port, there's some old sheds down there.

00:12:05We know that there's quite a community down there of people.

00:12:09And of course, these pedophiles know about that.

00:12:13And it's, I guess, open territory for them.

00:12:21Well, this is the area at the northern end of the Cairns Esplanade.

00:12:25And in this particular area, in this particular toilet block,

00:12:30we had a lot of young people actually prostituting themselves out of this area.

00:12:35Where a lot of pedophiles were hanging around the bushes here.

00:12:38And they just came out when the younger people got here.

00:12:42The kids actually used to call that their office.

00:12:44That's where they had the exchange of money.

00:12:46And one of the kids actually related to me that some American tourists

00:12:50were flying into Cairns just for the purpose of having sex with our young people.

00:12:54We are not a third world country.

00:12:55Our kids should not have to be exposed to foreigners coming in

00:12:59to have sex so the kids can survive on the street

00:13:01and buy themselves some food and clothing, whatever they need.

00:13:04I mean, I got three sons and I would have found it horrifying

00:13:07to imagine if my boys would have been subject to something like that.

00:13:12When we started street level youth care, of course, I was just on my own.

00:13:15I was on my own, I had no name for what I was doing.

00:13:19But the kids have been telling me about pedophiles hanging around the Esplanade

00:13:21where they're hanging around.

00:13:22So one day I decided I need to go and check this all out.

00:13:26And as I walked along the northern end of the Esplanade, I saw in the shadows, men.

00:13:31And I saw boys and girls walk past.

00:13:32And when somebody walked past, the other men approached these young boys and girls.

00:13:37So I went up to the first man I saw and said,

00:13:40I am, and I got stuck.

00:13:43I couldn't say, well, I'm Harold Falch.

00:13:45They said, so what?

00:13:46I said, I'm from the Baptist Church, so what?

00:13:49And as I was speaking, I'm from street level youth care.

00:13:54Just came out like that.

00:13:55And that's how I got stuck with that name.

00:13:56When he started, he didn't have the service clubs

00:14:02or the firms in town that support him now.

00:14:06He had just the ladies from the church.

00:14:08Harold shared with me one day that he had had a vision,

00:14:11which he believed was from God.

00:14:13And in the vision, he saw young people going into eternity

00:14:19without ever having knowing God.

00:14:21And it so affected him that he decided there and then

00:14:25that he was going to minister to them in the best way that he knew how.

00:14:30I belong to Baptist Church Cairns, and Harold belonged there too.

00:14:34And when he first started street level youth care,

00:14:37he and Sally were cooking meals.

00:14:40And so I said to Sally one day, why doesn't Harold ask others to do it?

00:14:46And she said, Harold doesn't like to.

00:14:48So I offered to help.

00:14:51I was the first one to cook meals for him.

00:14:53This is my kitchen.

00:14:54This is where I first started cooking for Harold

00:14:57when he started 18 years ago.

00:14:59I cooked pastas.

00:15:00I'd have the big boiler here with the spaghetti

00:15:04and then the mince on here.

00:15:06And I'd make big quantities at the same time.

00:15:09And after cooking for him to 10 years continuously,

00:15:13he gave me a certificate.

00:15:14I thought, well, I can at least help.

00:15:17In my part, I would start cooking meals.

00:15:19As a member of the Rotary Club, we caught the vision that Harold presented.

00:15:25He spoke to us on a number of occasions.

00:15:27We would go out and prepare meals.

00:15:30Many of my pensioners of the individuals who actually find

00:15:33by cooking one meal extra, they themselves eat better.

00:15:37Harold came to my school in grade 11,

00:15:39and he gave a speech about street kids

00:15:41and about what street-level youth care did.

00:15:44At the time, I was on the student committee,

00:15:46and we decided that this was something very important,

00:15:48that even though it was a concept we didn't understand,

00:15:50we should really get behind this.

00:15:51So as a school, we decided to cook meals for Harold in our home ec time.

00:15:57And we created these meals.

00:15:58We brought them here.

00:15:59And I guess that was the end of it to us.

00:16:01We'd done our bit for society.

00:16:02We were therefore heroes.

00:16:04It first became real to me when one of my friends said

00:16:08how he wasn't eating much.

00:16:09He'd left home in high school in grade 11.

00:16:11It was exam time, and his parents had kicked him out.

00:16:14It wasn't something that we thought about.

00:16:17It was just different and weird.

00:16:18We just didn't understand it.

00:16:20And then he told us that he was out of home.

00:16:22And we said, well, what do you do?

00:16:23Where do you go?

00:16:23And where do you eat?

00:16:24And he said, well, I go to street-level,

00:16:26that place that we cook these meals for.

00:16:28And that was my first experience of really understanding what Harold did.

00:16:33So...

00:16:59When Harold first set up street-level youth care on

00:17:03he met with a tremendous amount of opposition

00:17:06from different organisations in the town,

00:17:10particularly those that are involved with youth.

00:17:14And because he was trying to instil

00:17:18a Christian attitude to how they should live.

00:17:24And some of these organisations, which the government backed,

00:17:29took great and major exception to how he is trying to do his work.

00:17:36In the community, a lot of people have said,

00:17:39why do we feed kids who are under the influence,

00:17:42or sniffing glue, or whatever it might mean?

00:17:45Because that means they use that money to go out and buy

00:17:48where they could be eating their food.

00:17:49But the problem is, in this, is that the kids don't understand

00:17:55that the money they're spending on alcohol,

00:17:57or paint sniffing, or whatever it might be, drugs,

00:18:00they don't understand that that money can feed their stomach.

00:18:03And if we don't give them something to eat in their stomach,

00:18:06then they will still stay drunk, they will still buy that,

00:18:09but they won't have any food.

00:18:10Which means, in a lot of cases, it means that they're much more vulnerable

00:18:14and they are also a great health risk.

00:18:16Harold has had some personal difficulties with the work he does.

00:18:22He was accused at one time of being a pedophile

00:18:28and using the children for his own purposes,

00:18:31which was absolutely untrue,

00:18:35which was a scurrilous accusation

00:18:39by some people who wanted to bring him into ridicule.

00:18:46The reason we chose this location here is,

00:18:48number one, we have the toilet block right down here

00:18:50where we saw all those terrible things are happening,

00:18:53and to try to get the kids away from that area to start with.

00:18:57And then, of course, we had shops on the opposite side of the road

00:18:59and some coffee shops,

00:19:01and we didn't want to interfere with their business either.

00:19:03So just for the safety for the kids

00:19:05and also to make sure that we don't interfere with anybody,

00:19:08we moved our way up here a bit further away.

00:19:10And that was great because the kids start hanging around here at night now,

00:19:13around the food van rather than around the toilet block,

00:19:15where all the unsavory people were hanging around.

00:19:18Some people didn't like what we're doing,

00:19:19they thought that we're encouraging the young people to go on the streets,

00:19:23and sometimes they threw rotten fruit at us,

00:19:25they swore at us, they chucked rocks at us,

00:19:27they chucked even rotten eggs at us.

00:19:29And at one stage, we even had a shot fired from this building,

00:19:32from the Aquarius at us,

00:19:34and it missed our security officer by about a metre.

00:19:37And we said that the council was very happy to provide security for us

00:19:41because of the violence that existed sometimes

00:19:43against our team and against the young people.

00:19:45That's then when he started to bring it to the attention of people like me,

00:19:49people in government, people in positions in society,

00:19:53to say, we've got to take some action about this.

00:19:55He has also suffered physical abuse.

00:20:01Only recently, he was punched a few times.

00:20:06And some of the members of the van receive

00:20:11not only verbal abuse, but physical abuse.

00:20:14Harold is like their father.

00:20:16You know, he's a real father figure in the street kids community.

00:20:19I mean, any one of them out there want to make sure that Harold is OK.

00:20:24They want to know that he's all right.

00:20:26You know, he was sick for a little while there,

00:20:29and the kids would come and say, how's Harold doing?

00:20:31Is he getting better?

00:20:32You know, we don't want to see him sick.

00:20:34We want to make sure that, you know, if there's anything we can do to help him.

00:20:37You know, the whole culture within that street community

00:20:41is that they support one another.

00:20:43But since Harold is not a part of the street community,

00:20:45but he's a part of their life,

00:20:48they also, from that, want to be able to support him

00:20:51and want to be able to see how they can best help him.

00:20:55And so we moved from the Aquarius building down here

00:20:58by the council right over here, opposite the Holiday Inn,

00:21:01and where we had security lights,

00:21:04we also had a security camera installed here,

00:21:06and the council continued to provide us with security officers.

00:21:09And that's where we were for about seven or eight years

00:21:12before we then started moving on to the Monroe-Martin Park.

00:21:17In 2003, when the council developed the Esplanade

00:21:20and we had removed ourselves from there,

00:21:22they provided this park here for us, Monroe-Martin Park.

00:21:26And Monroe-Martin Park has many advantages for us.

00:21:28It's darker here, we don't have so much light,

00:21:30we don't have many tourists hanging around,

00:21:32and we have a power point, which the council allows us to use,

00:21:37so that we can heat up the meals directly here,

00:21:39and we don't have much wastage.

00:21:41This stage here has a big significance in the Monroe-Martin Park.

00:21:45When we moved here first,

00:21:46we saw quite a number of kids sitting here at night,

00:21:49and they're actually waiting for the bus to arrive.

00:21:51But we also found that this is an area

00:21:53where the kids used to congregate in the evening

00:21:56to do some unsavoury things,

00:21:57such as sniffing paint and sniffing crew,

00:21:59and it's called chroming.

00:22:01Quite often at night,

00:22:02when the young people want to talk to someone in private or confidential,

00:22:06we move up here,

00:22:07so we're still in view of the van and the other workers,

00:22:10and we can talk privately about their problems.

00:22:12Sometimes kids still wait for us,

00:22:13not as often as they did in the old days,

00:22:16and not as many,

00:22:18which is good too,

00:22:18because that indicates that maybe more kids have gone home now

00:22:21and are getting their life back in order.

00:22:24The homeless problem is a bit like getting lemon

00:22:27and trying to make lemonade.

00:22:28We see a lot of people,

00:22:29but they can bring so much to our city

00:22:32because of their diversity,

00:22:33and they bring something from all the places,

00:22:36from where they come.

00:22:37So our challenge is,

00:22:39through people like Harold

00:22:41and some of the government programs,

00:22:42to reach down and give some of these people a hand back up,

00:22:45because some of the young people that Harold deals with

00:22:48are so talented and have so much ability,

00:22:50and if working with Harold and with the community,

00:22:52we can find a way for these young people

00:22:54to get back in and help us build our city and make it better,

00:22:57that's got to be a great thing.

00:23:01That's where we keep our dry goods.

00:23:06As he comes through here,

00:23:07it's a little bit full right now,

00:23:08because we had a lot of chips come in only yesterday.

00:23:17Up there you can see there's blankets,

00:23:19and these blankets are very handy in winter.

00:23:22These little ones are actually airline blankets.

00:23:24They give them to us, they're ready, packed.

00:23:26They're hygiene packed.

00:23:29We do carry some tin food here.

00:23:30This type of tin food,

00:23:32we use for young people that are actually moving into flats

00:23:35or into units.

00:23:37Brody is, of course, one of the main drinks for the kids out there.

00:23:41We have ready-made food packs.

00:23:43We give them to people that come to the door,

00:23:45and usually they have children and have no food at home.

00:23:48That contains essential things like pasta,

00:23:52some biscuits and some tin food,

00:23:53Milo, coffee, tea,

00:23:56and that helps the people out for a little while.

00:23:58We have a sheet of what comes and what goes out,

00:24:01and it's very important.

00:24:03We could be accountable for everything that we do.

00:24:07Now, this is our freezer room.

00:24:13And this freezer room holds 2,000 meals when it's full.

00:24:18Everything we have is what the community provides.

00:24:20We do not buy food.

00:24:21We never had bought food in 18 years.

00:24:23It's continually being supplied,

00:24:25and that's a great thing,

00:24:26working with the community,

00:24:27getting involved, looking after our own homeless kids.

00:24:29We store them in here.

00:24:30They're frozen at 20 below zero,

00:24:33and you can keep them up to 60.

00:24:35And you can keep them up to six months,

00:24:37quite comfortable in there.

00:24:38The food is being rotated around,

00:24:40obviously, so that there'll be no spoilage at any time.

00:24:44At the moment, our freezer room is chock-a-block full.

00:24:46We've never, ever run out for food except one night.

00:24:50I do tell this story

00:24:51because it's significant to me as a Christian.

00:24:54We had no food left for the next day,

00:24:57and I was sick that day,

00:24:58and my wife didn't feel that well,

00:25:00and we didn't really feel like cooking 40, 50 meals up

00:25:03that night after coming home from the food ban.

00:25:06So I said to the kids,

00:25:07well, you guys sit down, and I need to pray.

00:25:09And after I pray, you guys say amen.

00:25:12And when they said amen, which was great,

00:25:14next morning, I go to my office.

00:25:16There were 40 frozen meals at the back of my office.

00:25:18No idea how I made them.

00:25:20No idea how they got there,

00:25:21but we had 40 frozen meals available for that night.

00:25:24That was the only night in 18 years

00:25:26where we ran so low we had nothing for the next day.

00:25:29Street Level Youth Care is a good name, I reckon,

00:25:34because it says exactly what Harold is doing.

00:25:40He's doing youth care at street level,

00:25:44and that's where the kids live, street level.

00:25:58And I love my mother.

00:26:01She was alive when my spirit was freedom.

00:26:03And when my soul was under cover,

00:26:05I had to fight just to believe her.

00:26:07That's when I turned to my blue sky brother.

00:26:09That's when he said, he said to me,

00:26:11run and see your nephew.

00:26:13My blue sky brother.

00:26:15My blue sky brother.

00:26:17My blue sky brother.

00:26:19My blue sky brother.

00:26:21My blue sky brother.

00:26:23My blue sky brother.

00:26:25My blue sky brother.

00:26:27I was put to some untamed life

00:26:31Unaware of the brother I had till

00:26:33One day when I was walking that track

00:26:35I turned around and you were watching my back

00:26:37I was feeling it too

00:26:39I was feeling it too

00:26:41I was feeling it too

00:26:43I was feeling it too

00:26:45I was feeling it too

00:26:47I was feeling it too

00:26:49I was feeling it too

00:26:51Pretty much I just came to Cairns

00:26:53because my girlfriend was pregnant

00:26:56and she wanted the support of her mother

00:26:58and her mum's here

00:27:00and when we broke up it was kind of hard for me

00:27:02to get housing

00:27:04and so getting housing was really hard

00:27:06and um

00:27:08so I went on the streets

00:27:10How do kids know where we are?

00:27:12How do kids know what we do?

00:27:14Well, it's all word of mouth.

00:27:16When a new kid arrives in Cairns

00:27:18usually within the same day

00:27:20they will know about our food van

00:27:22They don't call it street level youth care

00:27:24They call it Harold's van

00:27:26and the kids will come down within the first day

00:27:28usually seeking food and seeking help

00:27:30On the streets people talk

00:27:32and you meet a lot of people on the streets

00:27:34and they'll say

00:27:36What are you doing tonight?

00:27:38Someone says to you, I'm hungry man

00:27:40I don't know where I'm going to get food from

00:27:42Someone will always say, you heard about Harold?

00:27:44Heaps of people know about him

00:27:46I remember when I came here

00:27:48I heard it from seven people in one week

00:27:50They're like, yeah go to Harold's, he's up there

00:27:53Some of the children that come to Harold

00:27:55for assistance

00:27:57are as young as five

00:27:59Their older brothers or sisters are bringing them

00:28:01So these kids haven't got

00:28:03parents haven't got any

00:28:05responsibility whatsoever

00:28:07They just let the kids go

00:28:09Harold, if he gets a few of them

00:28:11that they think they're compatible

00:28:13and they're decent kids, he'll find them a unit

00:28:15teach them a budget

00:28:17how to get themselves organised

00:28:19and to look after themselves

00:28:21The population of the people that Harold's working with

00:28:23the young ones

00:28:25Aboriginal people, Torres Strait Island people

00:28:27often not from Cairns

00:28:29but from the Cape or even from the Torres Strait

00:28:31What we have to recognise

00:28:33with them is that sometimes

00:28:35there's been such damage done

00:28:37that they are outside of their families

00:28:39outside of the support groups

00:28:41that are so much a part

00:28:43of Aboriginal culture

00:28:45and so for them to need

00:28:47the support of services

00:28:49such as Harold

00:28:51and his supporters is hugely

00:28:53significant to find a pathway

00:28:55not only for them as individuals

00:28:57to a good life, but back

00:28:59into connection with their country

00:29:01with their family, back into being

00:29:03proud again about being

00:29:05Indigenous people in this country

00:29:07The hardest thing was making inroads

00:29:09with the Indigenous children

00:29:11They were the hardest one. It took 18 months

00:29:13before the Indigenous kids started trusting me

00:29:15Someone down the street

00:29:17helped me down with the squats

00:29:25We were staying in the city

00:29:27homeless on the streets

00:29:29I just wanted to get away from everyone, the police

00:29:31and people that would come across the news

00:29:33I wanted to get into the bush

00:29:35and be alone and quiet

00:29:37We used to come down here a bit

00:29:39so I chose this spot

00:29:41and

00:29:43it's pretty safe

00:29:48When I was staying here

00:29:50it wasn't this bad

00:29:52Other people have been here

00:29:54Messed it up a bit

00:30:00That fire wasn't there

00:30:02There was this little

00:30:04square patch here

00:30:06and I had my tent set up here

00:30:08to them poles, to this pole

00:30:10All this rubbish wasn't all there

00:30:12That's one of my old

00:30:14blankets there

00:30:16Had a little portable gas cooker here

00:30:18and it was just good

00:30:20because if you look at the back

00:30:22you can't see the track from here

00:30:24I used to have a little candle light

00:30:26and at night time people

00:30:28wouldn't bother me

00:30:30so I'd be down here by myself

00:30:32and just have friends

00:30:34No problem from the police or anybody

00:30:38It was good

00:30:40It was a lot better than being

00:30:42behind a bin in the city

00:30:46This is where I used to stay

00:30:48down in here

00:30:50When it was cold, no blankets or nothing

00:30:52Needed something to stay

00:30:54Go to Harold's just around the corner

00:30:56Have a feed there

00:30:58There's a couple of abandoned cars

00:31:00in behind here

00:31:02They're unlocked, no one comes in around here

00:31:04So it's pretty safe, you know

00:31:08First time I actually stayed here

00:31:10I actually stayed just there

00:31:12because I had blankets

00:31:14and all my stuff got stolen from here

00:31:16So I couldn't sleep here no more

00:31:18It was too cold, so that's when I went over there

00:31:20to this car

00:31:22So I was coming here for about 3-4 weeks

00:31:24staying in behind here

00:31:26Couldn't stay in the shelter because it was dangerous

00:31:28So I used to just come here every night

00:31:30after, go to Harold's and have a feed

00:31:32Just crashing here

00:31:34I stayed here for 4 weeks

00:31:36Probably looks pretty trashy, you know

00:31:38But it's better than nowhere

00:31:40And one day I was at the pub

00:31:42They gave me somewhere to stay for a couple of weeks

00:31:44to where I'm staying now

00:31:46in some public housing

00:31:48So, you know, I didn't have to stay here no more

00:31:50I went to Tully to do some work on the farms

00:31:52Just got into a bit of trouble

00:31:54Got into a fight and that

00:31:56I was on the streets, wasn't living anywhere

00:31:58I was staying in a tent, just in the park, you know

00:32:00And I got into a fight and arrested

00:32:02So then I had to hitch up

00:32:04Hike from Innisfail up to here

00:32:06Because I was in the watch house overnight

00:32:08Had no money, no nothing

00:32:10And then I went into Oskar

00:32:12And then I was on the streets here

00:32:14And I've been on the streets

00:32:16Next to the pier

00:32:18Just around here

00:32:20That looked totally different those days

00:32:22In that lattice work there was a little gate

00:32:24And we used to have some of the street kids

00:32:26Having access to the gate

00:32:28And they went and crawled under that building

00:32:30And they slept right amongst the rats

00:32:32And everything else under this building

00:32:34So they slept wherever they could

00:32:36Underneath buildings and driveways

00:32:38Driveways and alleyways

00:32:40The kids that stayed here

00:32:42I tried to encourage them

00:32:44Not to come down to Esplanade

00:32:46Because the kids staying here

00:32:48Would be safer than in an environment

00:32:50They would find themselves down there

00:32:52So we actually drove to Foodway

00:32:54And after we finished on the Esplanade

00:32:56We came up here and we fed the kids here

00:32:58We found there's a better solution

00:33:00Than having the kids coming down

00:33:02Making contact with all the elements down there

00:33:04Again, being exposed to all the criminality

00:33:06The pier has sunk in a bit

00:33:08And it gives a little protective wall

00:33:10Around the ground

00:33:12And we have young people sleeping

00:33:14In areas like that

00:33:16Just protected from the wind

00:33:18I think every child deserves to be in a comfortable bed

00:33:36It's all to the better to survive

00:33:38Don't give up hope

00:33:40And never give in

00:33:42In this world

00:33:44It brings you down

00:33:56As we grow as a city

00:33:58We have to be careful we don't lose our heart

00:34:00And that's where people like Harold help

00:34:02He has not waited for anyone else

00:34:04He's just got off his backside

00:34:06And worked hard to help young people

00:34:08Who are homeless and in need of assistance

00:34:10And he's never come to the door

00:34:12Of council or a government agency

00:34:14Asking for funding

00:34:16He just got straight up and did it himself

00:34:18And that's really built a lot of support

00:34:20In the community

00:34:22That said this man is doing something worth doing

00:34:24And he's really having a go

00:34:26One of the things that some people might think

00:34:28Is why don't we approach the government

00:34:30Well the problem is the government

00:34:32Have certain things like that

00:34:34But their rules and regulations

00:34:36Are not like what we want

00:34:38There's some areas in Cairns at the moment

00:34:40Where the kids go to a home

00:34:42But they can just walk in and walk out

00:34:44There's no responsibility

00:34:46They don't have to come back

00:34:48And they don't

00:34:50It seems to me that they're not cared for

00:34:52There are a lot of government programs

00:34:54And agencies out there

00:34:56Trying to address homelessness

00:34:58And other issues

00:35:00Sometimes people working for those departments

00:35:02Feel they're in a bit of a straitjacket

00:35:04And they can't respond quickly enough

00:35:06To problems as they emerge in the community

00:35:08So that's a great thing about Harold

00:35:10If there's a problem

00:35:12He'll just move and he'll follow the problem

00:35:14With his van

00:35:16If it's food he'll have food

00:35:18If someone needs to talk to someone

00:35:20Harold will be there to listen

00:35:22So I think it is really important

00:35:24That we don't bureaucratise

00:35:26Our response too much

00:35:28For people who are homeless

00:35:30There's a lot of deep hurts

00:35:32It's not as simple as saying

00:35:34Here's a phone number for somebody to ring

00:35:36To get a job and they'll be fine

00:35:38They need support

00:35:40They often have lost confidence

00:35:42They don't know how maybe

00:35:44To really get themselves into a training course

00:35:46Into a new life

00:35:48And that's where Harold

00:35:50And the ongoing program

00:35:52Is really important

00:35:54Watching Harold and the passion

00:35:56It just continually encourages me

00:35:58To strive myself to do it

00:36:00Before we go out and when we come back

00:36:02We always pray for the kids

00:36:04In my younger days

00:36:06It was pretty tough

00:36:08And I didn't really care about anybody else

00:36:10I didn't really care if people were suffering or whatever

00:36:12It didn't really bother me

00:36:14Karate was great because it depended on me

00:36:16I liked to win

00:36:18So if I lost a fight

00:36:20It just depended on me and not on anybody else

00:36:22When you're young and you're impressionable

00:36:24You fall for all that glamour

00:36:26And that glitz that goes with it

00:36:28And I do love to win trophies

00:36:30And everything in the old days was

00:36:32Harold, Harold, Harold, Harold

00:36:34From the moment I became a Christian

00:36:36It wasn't anything about Harold

00:36:38Things had to change

00:36:40Because see, God is love

00:36:42Whereas Harold was selfish

00:36:44So those two don't mix

00:36:46For me to be able to be a Christian

00:36:48The way God wants me to

00:36:50Something had to give

00:36:52Nobody came in

00:36:54It didn't happen overnight

00:36:56It was a process

00:36:58And it really started to get involved

00:37:00When I started working with young people

00:37:02Even the first few years as a Christian

00:37:04I was still reasonably hard

00:37:06Because you have years and years of this hard background

00:37:08Where you're fighting and winning

00:37:10And fighting and winning

00:37:12And you're glorifying yourself

00:37:14And suddenly you're going to give this away

00:37:16It doesn't happen usually overnight

00:37:18It took me a number of years to mellow

00:37:20And then it's my work with the homeless kids

00:37:22If you have the same passion

00:37:24As my lovely wife Sally has

00:37:26And we're working together

00:37:28Then we're making sacrifices together

00:37:30And these sacrifices are not going to be a hindrance to our relationship

00:37:34My life

00:37:36Has come undone

00:37:38But you aren't

00:37:40On this love

00:37:44Take me back

00:37:46Take me back

00:37:50Only you

00:37:52Only you

00:37:54Only you

00:37:56Can save me

00:37:58In your eyes

00:38:00In your eyes

00:38:02In your eyes

00:38:04In your eyes

00:38:06In your eyes

00:38:08In your eyes

00:38:10In your eyes

00:38:16I was with street level youth care

00:38:18For about 12 years

00:38:20And during that time I would go down

00:38:22Initially about three nights a week

00:38:24With the van and feed the young people

00:38:26But feeding young people

00:38:28Was just one part of our ministry

00:38:30And probably the most insignificant part

00:38:32Of our ministry

00:38:34Because we were concerned also about

00:38:36The welfare of their souls

00:38:38And their mental stability

00:38:40And well-being

00:38:42And so we had opportunities

00:38:44Every night to speak to the young people

00:38:46About their life

00:38:48About their hopes and dreams

00:38:50About the often traumatic

00:38:52Family life

00:38:54From which they had come

00:38:56I have a passion for young people

00:38:58That don't have what I had as a child

00:39:00And I have a passion

00:39:02To give them

00:39:04What I can

00:39:06I had a calling to do something

00:39:08Or help somebody

00:39:10And I just wasn't sure what it was

00:39:12That I needed to do

00:39:15One of the things that Harold's organisation

00:39:17Does is that

00:39:19He looks after

00:39:21The underage children

00:39:23This is an area that

00:39:25A lot of the other government departments

00:39:27Are not allowed to do because

00:39:29Once a child gets below a certain age

00:39:31Children's services has to come in

00:39:33Because they're bound by regulations

00:39:35Harold doesn't

00:39:37Harold is the kind of person

00:39:39Who looks after people

00:39:41Regardless of what their age is

00:39:43Or where they're coming from

00:39:45He doesn't care whether they've been on drugs

00:39:47Or whether they are on drugs

00:39:49Or anything else

00:39:51He's the kind of person who just goes in

00:39:53Without fear or favour and helps them

00:39:55Our main job really is just to make sure

00:39:57That the kids don't have to do any crime

00:39:59For food

00:40:01They don't have to sell their bodies for food

00:40:03And that's really what

00:40:05It's about and our part

00:40:07Street level youth care they try and

00:40:09Organise outings

00:40:11Maybe once or twice a year they'll go on a camp

00:40:13And you get 15, 20, 30 people

00:40:15And we'll all go out

00:40:41Some people don't like to interact with other people

00:40:43And do their own thing

00:40:45And just hide out in the bushes

00:40:47And play in footy ovals that aren't open anymore

00:40:49And like to just be really hardened

00:40:51And some people like to come

00:40:53Walking around in Central with me

00:40:55So it just really depends on the person really

00:40:57So I've got some mates

00:40:59That are on the streets that

00:41:01Do like to mix with other people

00:41:03And that's what I like to do

00:41:05I like to do that

00:41:07I like to do that

00:41:09I've got some mates on the streets that

00:41:11Do like to mix with other people

00:41:13And get out and meet people

00:41:15And come do the normal things that youths do

00:41:17When youths or kids go to the skate park

00:41:19Then we've got some that

00:41:21Don't like to do that

00:41:23And they tend to be very hidden away

00:41:25And sit in the bushes and come out at night

00:41:27The youth centres are good

00:41:29But there's nothing for

00:41:31There's no direction

00:41:33They don't

00:41:35They just

00:41:37Because they're government funded

00:41:39They let you come in during the day, waste all day

00:41:41Play on computers and play pool and do nothing

00:41:43At the end of the day

00:41:45They're not getting educated

00:41:47I think youth link or the 18 need to improve

00:41:49And they're pretty good Monday to Friday

00:41:51Drop in centre

00:41:53But they don't do people under 18

00:41:55And so there's a lot of like 16 year olds

00:41:5717 year olds on the streets as well

00:41:59And they can't go there

00:42:01So

00:42:03When you look at it like that

00:42:05They're adults

00:42:07And there's a night shelter for adults

00:42:09But there's no night shelter for youth

00:42:11The issue is so grave in some areas

00:42:13Of Cairns

00:42:15Especially around Munro Martin Park

00:42:17Which is a little bit of a hub for these kids to go to

00:42:19They're still not safe

00:42:21They're still not safe

00:42:23There are certain areas in Cairns

00:42:25That kids will certainly not walk down a certain street

00:42:27They will not attend a certain area

00:42:29In Cairns

00:42:31Because they know that there are predators

00:42:33They know that they are under abuse

00:42:35Or under threat of abuse

00:42:37There's such a wide spectrum of kids that are out there

00:42:39And you know what

00:42:41Each of these different kids have different cultural backgrounds

00:42:43They have different ways of being reached

00:42:45They have different things that make home to them

00:42:47They have different ways of looking at the future

00:42:49Street level youth care are doing what they can

00:42:51But the government

00:42:53The various businesses

00:42:55The various organisations

00:42:57Department of Communities

00:42:59All these types of areas within government

00:43:01Don't seem to be hitting the nail on the head

00:43:03To some degree I

00:43:05Don't think that

00:43:07Street level

00:43:09Is the solution

00:43:11It's a band aid for the solution

00:43:15In a big city like Cairns

00:43:17Has its own dangers of course

00:43:19For the young people

00:43:21For instance if a kid wants to sleep somewhere

00:43:23There's a danger of someone else coming along

00:43:25And claiming the place where they're sleeping

00:43:27We have children who had a blanket from us

00:43:29Trying to find a place to sleep

00:43:31And then they found one

00:43:33Some bigger guy came along

00:43:35And beat him up and took the blanket from them

00:43:37So that's one big danger

00:43:39Of being mugged by their own people

00:43:41And their own peers

00:43:43And then of course we have the girls

00:43:45Especially tell us the stories

00:43:47Where all the men will try to hang on to them

00:43:49And try to do sexual favours

00:43:51A lot of them

00:43:53Drink a lot

00:43:55On their depression

00:43:57I don't know

00:43:59I think it comes down to

00:44:01How their life was

00:44:03They can't handle it

00:44:05So they drink and hide behind alcohol and drugs

00:44:07You can find a job if you want

00:44:09If you really want

00:44:11It depends if you're in any trouble or not

00:44:13There is restrictions

00:44:15If you're in trouble with the police

00:44:17You're restricted

00:44:19Like now I'm on bail at the moment

00:44:21Being on the streets and on bail is pretty hard

00:44:23You've got to keep out of trouble

00:44:25When you're much older

00:44:27Being someone younger

00:44:29Scares you because you don't want to be stuck on the streets

00:44:31And be misfortunate

00:44:33Something could go wrong

00:44:35You could become an alcoholic

00:44:37And have diabetes and miss your medication

00:44:39You might have an accident

00:44:41And be on the streets and die

00:44:43One of my mates just died, he only had one leg

00:44:45It's rough

00:44:47When you live on the streets

00:44:49You pray to everybody

00:44:51There's a lot of bad people out there

00:44:53They try to take advantage of you

00:44:57The pedophiles are really bad

00:44:59They're always preying on us

00:45:01They try to give us drugs and alcohol

00:45:03And whatever we wanted

00:45:05To get us to do whatever they wanted

00:45:07A lot of them have ended up with STDs

00:45:09Which means for the rest of their life

00:45:11Even if their life turns around

00:45:13They're going to have to tell

00:45:15A decent guy who's going to marry them

00:45:17That they're going to carry this STD

00:45:19With them the rest of their lives

00:45:21Some years ago I thought

00:45:23I'm going to do my own research

00:45:25And see how many of these kids have been abused

00:45:27So I'm a fairly upfront person

00:45:29And I just started to ask them

00:45:31Tell me a bit about your background

00:45:33Have you been sexually abused?

00:45:35Yes, was the answer

00:45:37And I made a statement

00:45:39That 7 out of 10 of all those kids

00:45:41Boys and girls

00:45:43Had been sexually abused

00:45:45Been on the streets, you know

00:45:47With racers

00:45:49They wouldn't bash you

00:45:51And they don't like you

00:45:53What you look like

00:45:55When I hear people criticise them

00:45:57I said you need to find out their story

00:45:59And just walk a mile in their shoes

00:46:01You wouldn't even want to go near it

00:46:03I've seen a lot of gang conflict

00:46:05When I was younger

00:46:07A lot of street brawls and fights

00:46:09At the end of the day

00:46:11There are no winners

00:46:13Everyone goes home battered and bruised

00:46:15And some people don't go home at all

00:46:17The street kid Harold has contact with

00:46:19And writes to

00:46:21Often are in jail

00:46:23Quite often we find that younger people

00:46:25Finish up in prison or in the children's services

00:46:27Detention centres

00:46:29Juvenile delinquents

00:46:31Or whatever they call those centres

00:46:33And often they don't have any parents

00:46:35Or any friends or anything to write to them

00:46:37So I make it a point

00:46:39Whenever we know that someone goes to prison

00:46:41That we're going to be one of the first few people to write to them

00:46:43A few years ago we had one of the boys

00:46:45I used to write to him for about two or three years

00:46:47And never got a letter back

00:46:49So one day this boy turned up at the food van

00:46:51He gave me a hug and everything else

00:46:53And he almost cried and thanked me for writing letters to him

00:46:55But we did find that he was dyslexic

00:46:57He couldn't write and he couldn't read

00:46:59People read the letters for him

00:47:01But no one was going to write one back on his behalf for me

00:47:03That's why we don't stop writing

00:47:05Because kids don't write back

00:47:07What I do nowadays when I go to prison first

00:47:09I write them a letter

00:47:11And give a self-addressed and stamped envelope

00:47:13If they don't want any letters from us

00:47:15Never receive that envelope back yet

00:47:17When my mum passed away I was 13

00:47:19And I never met my dad

00:47:21And my family didn't

00:47:23Take their hand up to put me in

00:47:25They took my brother and my sister in

00:47:27And I went into foster care

00:47:29I don't really worry about them

00:47:31Because they didn't worry about me when I was younger

00:47:33I've actually seen someone on TV the other day

00:47:35That I know from Brisbane, the family

00:47:37Makes you feel like you want to go back home

00:47:39But you can't

00:47:41You're just stuck

00:47:43Stuck in one place

00:47:45I miss my son heaps, being on the streets

00:47:47It doesn't change the fact that I miss my son

00:47:53It's good I got a few photos of me and him together

00:47:59He's happy, always smiling

00:48:11He's alive

00:48:13Finally

00:48:19He's not afraid

00:48:21He can stand

00:48:25He can breathe

00:48:27He has no fear

00:48:29He's happy

00:48:31He's not afraid

00:48:33He can breathe

00:48:35He's not afraid

00:48:37So what?

00:48:39Love is so important.

00:48:59As a kids pastor, we see a lot of kids that come through our program.

00:49:02We see a lot of kids on the streets.

00:49:04We see a lot of kids in the schools.

00:49:05Whether it simply be acknowledging a child's name as they come into the program or a quick

00:49:09hug if they're feeling upset.

00:49:11The look of gratitude that you've taken an interest in these kids' lives is phenomenal.

00:49:17The sad thing is we see so many kids that don't get that love at home.

00:49:20The fellow that owned the games parlor said to me on a Friday night, there's nothing for

00:49:25kids to come in with a hundred dollar note and being told get out and come back till

00:49:30Monday morning.

00:49:32Because the parents obviously want to have a party or I don't know what the parents wanted

00:49:37to do.

00:49:38That's disgusting.

00:49:39Australia is one of the countries where the government actually provides funds to the

00:49:43parents whether they work or not and they give them money for each child.

00:49:48And I find that a lot of the parents get their money from the government and they go out

00:49:54and they drink rather than support their kids or give them the motivation to go to school

00:50:00and have a career and make something of themselves.

00:50:03And I think because of the parents' drinking problems they get violent and physical and

00:50:09a lot of kids don't have that family or friends or support group that they can go to so they

00:50:15tend to go out in the streets.

00:50:16And interacting with the kids, especially in Munro Martin Park, it's a mecca you might

00:50:21say of where these kids go to, to meet Harold, to meet the staff, to get some sort of solace

00:50:28from where they stay on the streets, where they hide in the streets.

00:50:33My life is great.

00:50:35I love my life.

00:50:36I have what I need.

00:50:37I have what I want.

00:50:38I make decisions.

00:50:39I make choices for myself but these kids don't have that.

00:50:44They haven't had those opportunities that I had as a kid.

00:50:47They haven't had the education, they haven't had the training, they haven't had the encouragement

00:50:51but most of all they haven't had the love that I had as a child.

00:50:57And it's really love that they're actually searching for.

00:51:00They search for love in all sorts of different ways, through drugs, through alcohol, through

00:51:05having sex with everybody else and that is a way that they're trying to fill that hole

00:51:10in their lives.

00:51:11I remember one kid, I won't give his name, but he came up to me and he said to me, you

00:51:16know my father is a police officer, my brother is in the army, they live just up the road

00:51:22yet they don't want me to go anywhere near there.

00:51:25They don't want to know me.

00:51:26This kid was telling me I should feel safe going home to somewhere where my father is

00:51:29a police officer and my brother is in the army.

00:51:32He didn't feel safe at all.

00:51:33He would much rather stay in Munro Martin Park with two things, his push bike and his

00:51:38football.

00:51:39So often we ask kids where your home is and they'll sit there and say my home is on the

00:51:42streets, that's where I live.

00:51:45That's a scary thing.

00:51:46Home is a special word to us.

00:51:48In the English language a home is not just a simple meaning for a house but it's a place

00:51:52of refuge, a place of love, it's where you belong.

00:51:55And these kids are saying that the home is the streets.

00:51:58Not only are they hungry, not only are they cold, but they're feeling abandoned.

00:52:01I mean that sense of abandonment is a very scary thing.

00:52:04Some of the biggest causes of teen suicide in our society today is abandonment issues,

00:52:09issues of not belonging.

00:52:25A loneliness and despair is a common thing among the young people that we're dealing

00:52:48with and it's just a story of a young man and a young woman.

00:52:53They were in love with each other and they even have a child together.

00:52:56But because of this despair and the loneliness, even having someone you love didn't seem to

00:53:01be enough for that girl.

00:53:03And one day, a few years ago, she ended her life here among these trees.

00:53:09And the sad story is the boy that she was in love with and who loved her, six months

00:53:14down the track he just couldn't deal with life anymore either.

00:53:18And because he couldn't deal with life, he also finished his life among these trees that

00:53:22the girl finished her life on.

00:53:23Now this is a sad story and that shouldn't be happening.

00:53:27If people were shown the love and the concern by the community, then these kids would be

00:53:31alive today.

00:53:36At one stage we had a young girl phoning me up at two o'clock in the morning.

00:53:39It's the first girl that ever rang me about committing suicide.

00:53:43And she rang me up and said, Harold, look, I'm just ringing up to say goodbye to you.

00:53:47And I said, well, why are you ringing me up at two o'clock in the morning just to say

00:53:50goodbye?

00:53:51She said, I'm going to put my life to an end.

00:53:54She said, I just can't stand it anymore.

00:53:57And I just had my first mobile phone.

00:53:59So I spoke with her on the phone and said, don't do anything until I see you.

00:54:03I deserve at least a hug after all the time I've been looking after you.

00:54:06And she agreed to that.

00:54:07And that was great because I didn't know what to do.

00:54:09And I just drove with my mobile phone going all the way from my home down to the Esplanade

00:54:13where she was outside the police station in a phone box.

00:54:16And I took her from there back to our church and opened the front door.

00:54:20And we sat outside the church so everybody can see us as they're walking past.

00:54:24And I spoke with her for quite a while.

00:54:25And she, today, she no longer attempts suicide.

00:54:29She has a child today.

00:54:31And she is a millionaire today, too.

00:54:33And that's just one of the positive things that people ring you up first.

00:54:37And so far, I've noticed any of the children that rang us first and wanted to say goodbye

00:54:41and tell us about committing suicide, we have lost any of those kids in all those 18 years.

00:54:47A lot of the kids have got no aspirations at all because they haven't been given any

00:54:51opportunity.

00:54:52They've got no real desire, a lot of them, of getting a job to be able to improve themselves.

00:54:58And the reason why is because they haven't seen it modelled.

00:55:01They haven't seen the love that could be shown that can help them actually do that.

00:55:06Some of the young people that I see even walking in the streets now, I walk, you know, I might

00:55:10go into a shop or something and I see one of the kids that's been on the streets serving

00:55:14in the shop because they've made something of themselves because, you know, the people

00:55:20that have helped them, they've responded and thought, well, you know, I need to become

00:55:24a responsible person as well.

00:55:26Quite often, when I've been there on a Wednesday night where someone has come up and said,

00:55:30look, you know, here's $50.

00:55:32Can you tell Harold, you know, Joe Bloggs gave it to him and I was on the streets five

00:55:36years ago and Harold helped me and I'm not on the streets anymore.

00:55:39I'm out and I'm working and I've got a family.

00:55:41There are success stories.

00:55:43He's been doing it long enough to get the feedback from a lot of them, which is very

00:55:47rewarding.

00:55:48Some of those letters are really great.

00:55:49I remember when she came to the food van first and she was so taken away by what we did for

00:55:53her that she said, Harold, when I get a job one day, I'm going to give you my first week's

00:55:58salary.

00:55:59We've all forgotten all about it until we have $200 in there.

00:56:04And she said, this is what I promised you in such and such a year.

00:56:07And you know, it's great when kids follow through with those things.

00:56:10Then, of course, we get invitations to go to graduations of high school, graduations

00:56:14of X-Street kids.

00:56:15We had invitations to go to weddings of X-Street kids.

00:56:17Harold can tell you story upon story of successful kids that have come through this life and

00:56:22then become model citizens.

00:56:25I grew up in Sydney with my father raising me and my sisters.

00:56:29Our house was a party house pretty much growing up.

00:56:33And so we were used to having the drugs and alcohol around us a lot.

00:56:37And at a young age, I turned to drugs and alcohol myself.

00:56:41I've never lived with my mum since I was about three years of age.

00:56:44And my father had raised us, but he'd been in jail and I didn't really trust anybody.

00:56:51So I'd rather do it for myself than be a burden to everybody as well.

00:56:56I came to Australia when I was 14 with my father.

00:56:59They let me in the country and they put my father on the next plane back to New Zealand.

00:57:04They didn't want me. So I was left on my own then.

00:57:07I started working pretty much the next day, steel fixing, concrete reinforcement.

00:57:13I earned good money. I wasted it all, drank it all.

00:57:16Like, I was earning $250 a day in cash, accommodation, food paid for.

00:57:20I'd drink $300 a day.

00:57:23So I had a pretty bad drinking problem, and drugs and everything else just all comes part and parcel.

00:57:29Sometimes I'd go two weeks without anything to eat, and sometimes longer it was, and I'd get really sick.

00:57:36So I ended up in hospital one time because I hadn't eaten for nearly three weeks.

00:57:42I refused to go on the job because I considered myself to be a worker and I wasn't a bludger.

00:57:49And my pride put me on the streets.

00:57:51Me ex-boyfriend Darryl, he was 34 when I got with him. I'd just turned 16.

00:57:57And he was a junkie, so I was in the drugs pretty bad, and that's when I moved out of the streets.

00:58:02I was probably on the streets for about two years on and off in the western suburbs of Sydney.

00:58:07I nearly got raped, but I fought him off.

00:58:10And, yeah, but a lot of my friends, even the males, the young boys and that, they get raped all the time.

00:58:17Two of my friends, Rodney and Mary, were sleeping in the park,

00:58:22and I was on the bench, and we had the three police officers turned up in a paddy wagon.

00:58:27I was asleep, and the police officer just came straight up and kicked me in the stomach twice,

00:58:31so he ended up— I'd go to hospital, broke two ribs.

00:58:34But I tried to put in a complaint. I tried to get hold of the ombudsman

00:58:38because I took the police officer's badge number,

00:58:41and they just kept on telling me, ''We recommend you do not take it any further.''

00:58:44I met a lot of street kids, people on the streets,

00:58:47and they introduced me to Harold Felge and the street of youth care and the van, the food van.

00:58:51I'd pick up my cigarette butts all day, and they'd give me enough tobacco for the day,

00:58:55and then I'd have a meal at night time down at the food van.

00:58:59So in that aspect, it stopped me from stealing.

00:59:02I'd seen Jason, and I'd seen how he'd changed, and it was slap in the face.

00:59:06And I'd give up drugs, cold turkey straight away, which shocked me

00:59:12because I never thought I would ever be able to give them up.

00:59:15And just seeing Jason and hearing his story about how he met Jesus and how it had changed his life,

00:59:21and so I knew right then that there was a God.

00:59:24So I started praying, and it made me feel stronger within myself.

00:59:29I tried to commit suicide a couple of times,

00:59:32but just meeting Harold, it was a big turnaround to give me hope and to be a stronger person.

00:59:38I thought I was pretty much dead. I didn't want to live anymore. I'd had enough. I just wanted to die.

00:59:43And after meeting Harold, it just turned my life around,

00:59:46and now I couldn't even believe that I used to have those thoughts.

00:59:50I just want to keep us all together. My main goal is for my children to have food.

00:59:55They've got a roof over their head, and they've got hygiene, a bit of cleanliness.

00:59:58I've never felt genuine love from my own parents than what I get off Harold.

01:00:03I can talk to Harold about absolutely anything, and it doesn't matter how bad it is, he'll be there for me.

01:00:11I've been married for five years now. I've got three beautiful boys.

01:00:15I've got a two-storey, six-bedroom house.

01:00:18I don't own it, but I'm renting it.

01:00:20And I never thought I'd be here where I am today after growing up and living on the streets.

01:00:29I come from a broken home. I've got two older brothers.

01:00:33My old man left me at the age of three. My old lady left me when I was 10 years old.

01:00:38She dropped me off at a Cairns police station and said that she didn't want to deal with me no more.

01:00:42Maybe I have a part to blame in that, which I can probably say, yeah, I do.

01:00:45I grew up at a young age on the streets in Cairns, Esplanade.

01:00:48I've been in and out of boys' homes, as in detention centres.

01:00:52The worst thing living on the streets in town is there's a lot of pedophiles around town,

01:00:56and there's a lot of people that I know of and all my mates have actually been through it,

01:00:59and they do it for food.

01:01:02They go and sell themselves for somewhere to sleep, which I don't agree on,

01:01:05which is very scary at times when you're only young.

01:01:09I went through a life of drugs, alcohol, crime.

01:01:14I've done it all, but I wasn't very proud of it, but I had to do it to survive.

01:01:17I've had a lot of mates that's died through my time, I've known them, from drugs.

01:01:22But there's a lot of people out there like Harold Fowler himself,

01:01:24who's come along out of nowhere and just helped a lot of people.

01:01:27And just having to talk to you and make you feel better and make you feel wanted

01:01:30is what Harold does mainly. It's not about the food, it's not about the blankets.

01:01:34If I had never met a man like Harold,

01:01:35then I don't think my life would have turned out the way it did,

01:01:38otherwise I probably would have ended up in jail for the rest of my life.

01:01:42I've come from partly an abusive family.

01:01:47My mother was a big drinker as well and gambled a fair bit.

01:01:54And a couple of times she'd come home drunk.

01:01:59I looked up to my older brother, but he was into the drugs

01:02:04and got me hooked on drugs for a bit.

01:02:07Got kicked out for it for a while and was on the street myself.

01:02:10And it was shocking to be on the street.

01:02:15I left home when I was 12 and stuff, and being in 21 different homes,

01:02:18it was quite hard. Most of them, I was a bit rebellious.

01:02:22From my life before, I thought I had nothing.

01:02:25I tried committing suicide myself while taking drugs.

01:02:30That's a big step for me to come down, meet someone, get married,

01:02:34and that's changed my whole life around. It's turned me inside out.

01:02:38I do something that I like doing, working with Harold and the food van.

01:02:43Harold's also been a very great support in my life.

01:02:46When he saw me graduate, he was a bit teary in the eyes.

01:02:50You can't feel what they're feeling, but you know for yourself

01:02:53because you've been through what it feels like to be in their position.

01:02:56We're also in the making of becoming assessed foster carers

01:03:01so that we can foster some children.

01:03:03I haven't had that upbringing that I wanted,

01:03:07but I want to be a good father and a good husband as well.

01:03:12Some people don't have a choice, but a lot of them do have a choice

01:03:15and they choose to live on the streets.

01:03:18But I think it is, you've got to try and find...

01:03:22You've got to be around positive people.

01:03:24If you're living on the streets, you might think it's cool at the time.

01:03:27You might be at home and you think,

01:03:29oh, I'm going to run away from home and live on the streets.

01:03:32But I'm telling you, you want to stay at home. You do.

01:03:36Because you don't want to live in something like this.

01:03:39Family can't ring you, they can't see you, they can't talk, they can't help you.

01:03:43Who's there? No-one.

01:03:45You're better off staying at home and going to school.

01:03:48If I can do it, anybody out there on the streets

01:03:50can do the same thing as I've been through and done.

01:03:54I'm pretty proud of myself and where I'm at now.

01:03:56It is hard and there is a way out and there always will be a way out.

01:04:00So don't look down on yourself and don't feel down on yourself about it.

01:04:05OK, because it may not be your fault,

01:04:06but there's always a way out to get to the next step.

01:04:09It's about the kids when they come back to me a year or two,

01:04:13sometimes three years later, and they're telling me about their successes.

01:04:17They've gone back to school. Some have got a job now.

01:04:20Some even become teachers in all kinds of other areas they're in.

01:04:24And when they have made it, these are my real heroes.

01:04:35Follow your heart and sound

01:04:42Listen for your soul, it's already breathing

01:04:48To the sound of a melody that leads you to a place

01:04:54When I look at someone's face, they're silently

01:05:00Sounded way, begging me to stay

01:05:05And I'm free

01:05:10Yes, I'm free

01:05:15I will find my way

01:05:22The solution to this problem is parents, love your children,

01:05:27look after them, care for them like you'd want to be cared for.

01:05:32Then we wouldn't have this problem.

01:05:34We wouldn't have to be worrying about children running around,

01:05:37getting into trouble, being used by undesirable people.

01:05:41Australia's got to think very carefully about how they give out money to parents

01:05:46and rather get them, when they give them the money,

01:05:50to make sure that those kids go to school

01:05:52and have those parents actually show that they buy food

01:05:55and look after those kids rather than go out buying alcohol,

01:05:59go gambling and just do whatever it is that they do with those funds.

01:06:04They need to learn that there's more to life than the concrete jungle,

01:06:07that there's a whole new world out there,

01:06:10aside from the drugs and the alcohol and the pornography and the pedophilia.

01:06:14Today's society's just corrupted itself and it's accepted,

01:06:18but now it's just an everyday occurrence.

01:06:21We hear it on the news and you don't worry about it.

01:06:23You don't worry about it in one area or the other.

01:06:26The sincerity of people has diminished

01:06:31and they're very greedy, very selfish, self-orientated.

01:06:36I think that if people just work together and help each other

01:06:41with an honest heart and with pure intentions,

01:06:47it'll work out well.

01:06:49The community needs to embrace and acknowledge that this is a problem.

01:06:52They've got to acknowledge that these are their children.

01:06:54They've got to acknowledge that they need love,

01:06:57they need to be shown love, they need to be shown respect,

01:06:59they need to be cared for.

01:07:00As long as you've got one kid on the streets, cold and hungry,

01:07:03it's not enough.

01:07:04As long as you've got a family where kids are being abused and neglected,

01:07:08it's simply not enough.

01:07:09All he wants to see is that these young people

01:07:12understand that there is a better way to live

01:07:15and that there's another way to live

01:07:16and that they don't have to be on the streets.

01:07:18Over the years, I've been given many certificates and many awards,

01:07:21which is great.

01:07:23It's a humbling experience to be recognised by the community

01:07:26and by the government that you're working in.

01:07:29When I started with Street Live Youth Care,

01:07:31quite a few people made comments like,

01:07:33oh, well, you'll last six months, mate, you'll give it up,

01:07:35you'll have enough after that.

01:07:37So, well, I lasted six months.

01:07:39Then they said, well, two years, mate, you're going to give it up.

01:07:41Two years later, you won't last five years.

01:07:44Well, they don't know me

01:07:46because I have a passion

01:07:48and I live with that passion and for that passion.

01:07:51And I will work till someone else can take over

01:07:54or till I drop dead, one or two things will happen.

01:07:57But I will not disband those kids

01:08:00because those kids need someone to be there with them

01:08:02who can love them for what they are, the way they are,

01:08:05without judging them and trying to make a difference in their lives.

01:08:08So when people said to me, two years, six months, five years,

01:08:11well, I'm still going.

01:08:13Yes, I'm bolder and I'm older, but I'm still going.

01:08:17One man can't do it on his own,

01:08:19but he's done it for as long as I can remember, for longer,

01:08:24and he won't stop doing it.

01:08:26It's all that one man can do,

01:08:28but definitely need about at least 100 more Harolds out there

01:08:32doing the same thing to fix the situation.

01:08:35Harold has big dreams

01:08:37that all of these people who fall on hard times,

01:08:40all of these people, whatever age,

01:08:42but especially the young ones who are homeless,

01:08:45should be given a pathway and assistance

01:08:47to have the life that you and I have,

01:08:50a full and independent life,

01:08:52to share in the wonderful country that is Australia.

01:08:55The great thing would be one day to not hear kids say

01:08:58that my home is the streets, but to be a home,

01:09:01a physical place where they can actually feel love and belonging.

01:09:04Part of the thing about building a better future for the kids

01:09:07is really providing a pathway,

01:09:09about getting them into a situation

01:09:12where they've got a stable platform,

01:09:14where they can get up and get to school or get to work

01:09:17or get to training every day

01:09:19and fulfil their goals and their aspirations,

01:09:22something that's just, frankly, not possible

01:09:25when you're sleeping rough on the streets of Cairns.

01:09:27The need here is to have the house for Harold's house,

01:09:31not just because Harold decided that it was his vision,

01:09:35but because that's what the kids need.

01:09:37They need somewhere to go.

01:09:39For years I've been trying to raise funds

01:09:41to help to build a house,

01:09:43and people come up with all kinds of weird ideas

01:09:45how they're going to raise money for us.

01:09:47When you look at a bloke like Harold Fouge,

01:09:49you don't have to go out there and sell

01:09:51because people drive past Munro Martin Park every night

01:09:54and they see the street van and they know that's Harold.

01:09:57And that contribution over so many years,

01:10:00more than 18 years, is our biggest asset.

01:10:04We already have training facilities and educational facilities

01:10:07and employers that are saying,

01:10:09look, we want to give these kids a job,

01:10:11but until you take the first step of giving them a home,

01:10:14you're setting them up to fail.

01:10:16And that's been our biggest challenge over the last decade.

01:10:19Even though street-level youth care has been there for the kids,

01:10:22it really hasn't been able to take them to the next step,

01:10:25and that's really what Harold's house is all about.

01:10:35We're going south on Margrave Road, going towards Edmonton.

01:10:38It's around about 12 kilometres outside Cairns.

01:10:42The reason we want Harold's house that far out

01:10:45is that it will be more protective for the young people.

01:10:48There'll be less chance of them absconding

01:10:50and going to town in the middle of the night.

01:10:52People who are drug dealers maybe or people who are pedophiles,

01:10:55they won't come all the way out there

01:10:57and they don't know where we are in the first place.

01:10:59There are going to be rules and regulations in the house,

01:11:02so it's not going to be that easy to approach the young people

01:11:05to stay with us anyway.

01:11:07But it's a beautiful, serene area.

01:11:13I'm very confident that we'll have the platform

01:11:15to go ahead with the building of the house,

01:11:17laying the bricks and mortar,

01:11:19which is something that we've waited so long to be able to do.

01:11:22It'll be good when that's up and going

01:11:24because underage or youth have got a house, a shelter to go to,

01:11:28so that'll be really good.

01:11:31At this point, they don't really have nowhere to go to at night.

01:11:34That's why they are on the streets.

01:11:36Here we have a sketch of the Harold's house,

01:11:39what it's going to be looking like when it's ready.

01:11:42It may look big. Yes, we have some big dreams.

01:11:44You've got to convey the message of the big dream to the people

01:11:47so people can dream with you and make this house a reality.

01:11:51It's a great house with great things happening there.

01:12:00piano plays softly

01:12:03You have the strength to lift yourself

01:12:08Hopefully in the near future, the streets will have a new name

01:12:12for the kids to call their home.

01:12:14Cast aside your every fear

01:12:18And settle for no less

01:12:23On your quiet road less travelled

01:12:29We'll guide you when it's dark

01:12:34Let the sound of our hearts beating

01:12:40Lead you to your one true star

01:12:47We see the spirits

01:12:54Deep in your eyes

01:12:58Breathe in the night

01:13:01Feel so alive

01:13:04You can fly

01:13:09You can fly

01:13:16piano plays softly

01:13:22Sometimes you find you're standing still

01:13:28You can't breathe

01:13:33Close your eyes and find yourself

01:13:37Embracing all your fears

01:13:42We see the spirits

01:13:48Deep in your eyes

01:13:52Breathe in the night

01:13:55Feel so alive

01:13:58You can fly

01:14:03So many times

01:14:07We learn through our lessons

01:14:09So many times

01:14:12We feel things go wrong

01:14:14So many times

01:14:17We're pushed to the line

01:14:20There's something inside

01:14:24We see the spirits

01:14:31Deep in your eyes

01:14:35Breathe in the night

01:14:38Feel so alive

01:14:41You can fly

01:14:46You can fly

Where The Streets Have No Name (2010) - Feature (Documentary)

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