Project to provide 1,000 cardboard tents to the homeless this winter

The ORIG-AMI initiative, now in its fifth consecutive year, has set itself the objective of distributing between 500 to 1,000 cardboard tents and as many sleeping bags to the homeless in Belgium’s main cities this winter, the project’s organisers said in a statement on Friday.

Last year, with help from independent supports and social welfare organisation CPAS, the project distributed 500 tents to the most deprived, not only in Belgium but also in France and Luxembourg.

Due to the health crisis and the reduction of places in reception centres, many people were forced to spend the night on the street in 2020. ORIG-AMI’s creators say that this year again the crisis has pushed an increasing number of people into homelessness.

ORIG-AMI distributes a cardboard tent and sleeping bags for two people, paid for by a sponsorship scheme in which members of the public can pledge money. The cardboard tents, which have a protective film allowing them to survive for several months outside, plus the sleeping bags cost 30 euros. Cardboard is also an excellent thermal and sound insulator.

Some 200 tents have already been distributed so far this year, ORIG-AMI’s organisers state.