A walk with the homeless in Aarhus

On a cold late August evening, my aunt and I headed to Aarhus to attend a rather unusual guided walk called Poverty Walk. For Christmas, I had bought her and I a guided tour with a formerly homeless person who would take us through Aarhus, depicting their everyday lives to give an insight into the harsh street life.

For 1,5 hours, our 47-year-old guide Tommy took us on a journey behind the polished facade of the city, giving us an authentic insight into the life of a homeless person and drug abuser, while showing us some of the offers and venues that are available to the homeless and abusers in Aarhus. Tommy told us of his harsh childhood in and out of the child psychiatric hospital until he was finally diagnosed with ADHD. He had high dreams of becoming a chef, but going to school ended in a serious drug abuse that left him weak economically, socially and health-wise. His drug abuse got him into rehab four times, all of which he completed, but three times he fell back into the abuse again. Today, he is clean most of the time but only with help of medications according to himself. He told us about one of his worst experiences with drugs, which happened just a year earlier when he had an epileptic seizure and was rushed to the hospital. Thankfully, he made it, and today his life seems to be going the right way. Since April, he has been living in an apartment, so he can now be in a safe environment away from the streets and the enticing drugs.

A walk with the homeless and formerly homeless is a walk for life. It's an experience that differs greatly from anything else I've experienced in my life. It's an experience that puts daily life into perspective. It's a thought-provoking and different experience that will leave you in deep thought. It's hard to take it all in, to understand just how lucky I am that I was able to stay out of it. That I grew up in a safe and loving environment, far away from the troubles and instability of the streets. Street life is tough, we all know that, but getting an insight as such was still eye-opening to me.

Despite Tommy not being the best at telling stories mainly because he often talked when walking so the people in the back couldn't hear what he was saying, he gave us a unique insight into the life of the homeless and drug abusers of Aarhus, an environment that he was once very much part of and still plays a big role in. Thank you Tommy, for giving me insight.

Do you wish to go on a similar guided tour in Aarhus or Copenhagen? You can find the walks here and here (not sponsored).