By Karina Papp

Radio podcasts raising awareness of homelessness in St. Petersburg have been made available on the Internet with a new project called Homeless Radio.

“Our radio is not the same as that which we listen to in our cars on the way to work,” said Arkady Turin, a coordinator with Homeless Radio, which is backed by charity New Social Solution. “It is a kind of podcast of interviews with homeless people. And it is calculated to help foster a more tolerant attitude to socially excluded people and to let everybody know that the homeless are the same as everyone else.”

Homeless Radio has so far podcast two programs called “To Remember Goodness” and “Concert by Request.” But more are planned, said Turin.

“We have begun small, but who knows, maybe some day we’ll start real broadcasting?” Turin said.

The project got underway in May when London’s International Ten Feet Away Festival of Homeless Art asked for podcasts from Russia.

The festival, held at the end of July, is a forum where homeless and ex-homeless people will have the opportunity to exchange thoughts, ideas and future projects in the arts.

Ten Feet Away International includes poetry, photography exhibitions, theater, dance and music workshops, sculpture and even circus workshops. The festival takes its name from the tendency of members of the public to stay “ten feet away” from homeless people on the street. Homeless Radio podcasts can be found at www.putdomoi.ru, the website of St. Petersburg’s homelessness magazine and an affiliate of the U.K.’s The Big Issue.

Blogs from St. Petersburg homeless people can be found in English on the site of Ten Feet Away International at tenfeetaway.wordpress.com.

News source: times.spb.ru
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