Hannah Taylor, 11, fights homelessness

Print Article Email to a Friend

WINNIPEG—Antihomelessness activist Hannah Taylor, 11, told students and staff at a Canadian Mennonite University (CMU) chapel Jan. 22: “If we never give up and care enough for each other, we can do anything.”

When you see a homeless person, “don’t be afraid of them, be kind to them,” she said.
The young Winnipegger’s journey of helping homeless people across Canada began when she was 5 years old and saw someone eating out of garbage can.

“I was very sad and felt sick about it,” she said. “I asked my mom why he had to do that. She said it was because he was homeless.”

Hannah turned that experience into a classroom project, then later made “Ladybug” jars—glass jars spray painted red with black dots—to collect spare change. That was the start of the Ladybug Foundation, which has raised over $500,000 for Canadian charities that help homeless people.

Members of the CMU community are doing their part to help Hannah help homeless people; Ladybug jars have been placed around the campus so students, staff and visitors can donate their spare change.

Current Stories

Articles

• A landscape of change
• Profiles in contrast
• Opportunities and challenges

News stories, digests and Meno Acontecer

• Danisa Ndlovu pleads for help in Zimbabwe
• Music, worship program celebrates 20 years
• Iraqi peace worker killed in Baghdad
• Hannah Taylor, 11, fights homelessness
• Pastor organizes class on pastoral ministry
• Recommendation to ordain women fails

Columns

• Protecting our children from the church
• The realities of our church life
• The middle church