A homeless man cries for joy when he finds out that $17,000 has been raised to give him a roof over his head
Sometimes, it takes less than you might think to completely change a person's life. It's true, individually we will never be able to eradicate poverty and the problem of homelessness in large cities, but if we combine many small single actions we could, in the long run, make a difference. Phillip Vu is a 24-year-old Californian man who, as far as we know, could have continued his comfortable life and enjoyed his youth without necessarily having to worry about the evils that plague the world. One day, however, he met Mike, a 46-year-old homeless man and, suddenly, he realized that he could turn that man's life upside down for the better. After that, it didn't take long to carry out a kind act like giving him enough money to be able to find regular shelter and not have to sleep on the street.
Philip was driving his car and was parked at the lights when Mike approached him, offering to clean his car windows and mirrors. The boy remembers politely refusing the service but, shortly after, returning to the same place to offer the homeless man a sandwich. This is how the two met and started an unusual and beautiful friendship. Philip is a guy who uses social networks a lot and over the course of several months, he posted some conversations between him and Mike on TikTok. The man's story affected him deeply: Mike had lost his father when he was very young and, unfortunately, over time he also lost all contact with the other members of his family.
He was also in prison at one point, for reasons we don't know at the moment; probably the man is not particularly proud of it and has decided not to share an aspect of his life that he hopes he has put behind him.
The recorded conversations between Philip and Mike, however, have been very successful on social media - far more than Philip could have imagined! Thanks to those videos, millions of users had listened to them conversing in the car and knew Mike's story. It wasn't difficult, then, to ask for everyone's help to support him with a donation: in just 2 days, Philip raised about $10,000 thanks to a fundraising page created especially for Mike - money that soon multiplied, until the an expected $17,000 is reached.
When Philip gave Mike the envelope with the collected money, the man burst into tears: "Oh my God, what are you doing?" He asked incredulously. Mike didn't really hope anymore to change his life for the better, but luckily he met a guy like Philip on his way, who decided not to look the other way.
Mike is currently trying to get his birth certificate and social security number; he applied for low-income housing and Phillip also arranged to provide him with some financial advisors to help him through the process. We are confident this is a new beginning for Mike! We leave you the original video, in which Philip donates the money to Mike:
