The Final Call

Street news vendors climb out of poverty

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NEW YORK (IPS/GIN) - Every day, hundreds of street papers attempt to battle homelessness by raising awareness of poverty, inequality and social justice in cities across the world. The bulk of these papers are bought at cost by destitute, homeless or other marginalized vendors and sold for their cover price, allowing the sellers to pocket a small profit off every sale.

“Our main objective is to hear the voices from the ground,” SNS Editor Danielle Batist told IPS. “These are street-voice stories, if you will.”

Ms. Batist stressed the importance of digging up the stories that get overlooked by the mainstream, and exposing front-line realities about the world. In July 2010, StreetWise was one of the few news sources to report on the wave of hate crimes against homeless people in the United States.

“This is about people using journalism to help themselves and thus help the world,” said David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief of Reuters and honorary International Network for Street Papers president.

On Oct. 13, the Glasgow-based International Network for Street Papers announced that it had helped 200,000 people get off the streets and onto a path of opportunity.

Dedicated to combating homelessness through the sale of newspapers, INSP describes itself as a “global engine for (finding) local poverty solutions across the globe” by harnessing the employment potential of street paper movements to their cause.

SNS is supported by a number of global partners including Inter Press Service, Reuters and the Herald and Time Group, all of whom allow their content to be reproduced free of charge on SNS's multi-lingual interactive web site.

Born in London in 1995, INSP has grown from an intimate gathering of editors and social workers representing 16 newspapers to a huge umbrella organization encompassing hundreds of street papers.

To mark the UN Day for the Eradication of Poverty on Oct. 17, INSP reported that 114 street papers and magazines worldwide have enabled hundreds of thousands of homeless people to improve their lives.

INSP displays a steadfast commitment to these principles—in addition to providing housing assistance, sales training and drug and alcohol rehabilitation therapy, vendors are also offered writing and literacy workshops. Often street papers publish vendors' art and poetry, a big step towards boosting the morale of people who have shouldered the brunt of gross social inequity, some for nearly a lifetime.