A heartbreaking picture is now viral on the internet and it shows a young Irish boy eating his dinner off a piece of cardboard on the streets.
The heartbreaking image was shared by a café in Dublin.
The Homeless Street Café, a café that helps the homeless in the Irish Capital, shared the image on Facebook to raise awareness on how people live, eat, and sleep on the streets.
The image that was shared by the café showed Sam, a young boy, kneeling on the ground eating the food that was given to him by the café.
While posting the picture on Social Media, the café said, “We are home after another incredibly busy night. I’m exhausted, weary and emotional and should (guiltily) go to bed BUT there is an image burnt in all the team’s minds tonight. It’s wrong and it’s distressing but this IS happening and it’s only getting worse each week.”
The post added, “’Sam’ is 5 and this was him eating a dinner of carbonara tonight on a sheet of cardboard. Can we really accept this?”
Since the photo was shared on social media, the picture received tons of emotions.
A user wrote on the post, “That’s so sad. Be grateful for what you have. Fair play to you guys. Amazing work.”
Another user said, “My god this is just devastating and so hard to see as a mother of 2 little boys my heart is broke looking at this picture we need to take a stand as a country, things need to change I applaud you guys and the exceptional work yous do! Fair play to you all.”
A third user said, “Oh my god, that poor child. The amazing work you guys do is so important. Thank you and together we will help more people like Sam. You guys are truly amazing x”
The picture that was shared by the café has over 10 thousand likes, over 1800 comments, and over 9.3k shares.
After the post went viral, the café thanked everyone for the responses.
They wrote, “Thank you so much everyone for your overwhelming response and for not just accepting that this is ok.”
They added, “This post has reached over a quarter of a million people which is amazing and we have over a thousand comments and messages to go through. We are small volunteer group and all our team are back in their day jobs today so please bare with us as we navigate through our next steps. Our priority as always is continuing to support the homeless who come to us each week and the children among them that “Sam” represents.”
The post continued, “To confirm “Sam” is in emergency accommodation and attends school. His mother is simply trying to access nutritious home cooked meals for him. Most emergency accommodations strictly forbid cooking or food preparation.”
The Homeless Street Café travels in Dublin each Tuesday evening and hands out clothes, food, and other day-to-day use essentials to the people who are less fortunate.
A job well-done lads, may God bless you!