By Khalida Sarwari
Santa Clara County has the nation’s fifth-highest homeless population, according to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Saratoga High School students Nina Nelson and Ashvita Ramesh wonder how many people in the area are aware of that.
The two started their Teens Just Cause foundation early last year to bring awareness to social problems such as homelessness in a more direct and interactive way, with the aim of educating people first before taking action. Instead of taking on huge issues such as world hunger or world peace and simply throwing money at those problems, Nina and Ashvita, who are both 16-year-old juniors at Saratoga High, are interactively delving into the issues that matter to them.
Today, Teens Just Cause boasts about 10 members and a volunteer base of more than 300 people. Most recently, the group spent some time at HomeFirst, a respite center for the homeless in San Jose. For two months they helped Audrey Kuang at the shelter, mostly talking to the homeless to understand their struggles.
“A lot of these homeless people have medical issues or some sort of medical problem, and this respite center is the only place for them in San Jose,” said Ashvita. “It’s really just luck based whether or not they can get the support or treatment they need.”
One key lesson they learned from their discussions with the residents there is that often the homeless said they wished that others showed them more respect and dignity. From such interactions sprung the idea of capturing their stories in a documentary the students plan to enter into film festivals. The goal, said Nina and Ashvita, is to break the stigma of homelessness and show that they are just people who happen to be down on their luck.
“It’s just kind of educating people that just saying hi to these people can really make a huge difference in their lives,” Ashvita said.
Nina and Ashvita presented a clip of their documentary, which they’ve tentatively titled “The Social Gap,” at a school assembly recently, but it’s still a work in progress. They’re hoping to post it on YouTube within a month or so.
“We thought homelessness was a problem that was distant; it never occurred to us that it was a problem occurring in our community,” Ashvita said.
They’ll be discussing their work with students at Argonaut Elementary on Dec. 5. They have also started a sock drive at Foothill Elementary and encourage the community to drop off new socks at the school through Dec. 19.
They are also considering directly helping some of the residents at the shelter to get back on their feet. One example is a young woman with a child whose decision to get a gang-related tattoo earlier in her life is now hindering her from finding a job.
The teens had the idea of tackling the homeless problem in Santa Clara County after doing a coat drive for the homeless last year at Santana Row.
“When we saw that firsthand on the streets of San Jose for the first time, we were shocked,” said Nina. “We sympathetically felt cold for them, so we’ve been pretty devoted to helping homeless people for about a year now.”
For more information about Teens Just Cause, visit teensjustcause.org.
