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i've been homeless probably about 11 12
times i've lost everything i've owned
six or seven times i had a really bad
childhood my dad was a violent alcoholic
i suffered from abuse and neglect now
i'm a volunteer tour guide with
invisible cities
is this a true story or a shaggy dog
tale
let's find out somebody told me about
zakian invisible cities and i didn't go
too much school right but i've always
loved history
and i'm quite well read it's changed my
life
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i founded the enterprise back in 2016
with the idea to train people who had an
experience of homelessness to become
walking tour guides of their own city
we are based in scotland in edinburgh
where i am today but
we also run tours in glasgow and then in
england in manchester and new york
i realized that homelessness is attached
to a lot of stigma
when you're homeless you're invisible
people never look at you it's like they
look through you we wanted to make them
visible
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some people have certain themes they
want to talk about because they're
passionate about politics or about food
or about women empowerment
guys are really proud of the fact that
it's theirs and that they are the expert
on that topic
i do several tours but i do tours on the
train spot in the movie i grew up
during the so-called transporting period
i get lots of americans coming on my
train spotting tour
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once a month we've got a professional
barber cut the street guys here for them
for your charge
we organized events called the sparkle
sisters where we gave a head-to-toe
pampering experience so that's haircut
access to free clothes and access to
free toiletries and sanitary items
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we have people who support guides with
whatever they need in their lives and
the biggest one is with housing
i don't think it's fair to train someone
and then tell them okay you have a tour
on wednesday at 2 p.m
but at that night you don't know where
you're going to sleep
i'm now doing my dream job i've got a
house i live on the 17th floor of a
tower block but you should see the views
now look down the east coast of
edinburgh
invisible cities it's like a dream come
true for me you know
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you