Workers in Manchester are ‘pyjamming’ to raise awareness of the plight of the 80,000 homeless children currently living on UK streets.
IT giant IBM’s staff put their pyjamas on and left their offices in a fun charity twist before posting quirky pictures of themselves online.
Charity Action for Children and Byte Night teamed up to organise the social media campaign with the aim of raising £1.2million pounds to battle homelessness.
Simon Meredith, who chairs the Byte Night North West planning committee, said: “Pyjamming on Albert Square was a silly challenge, a bit of an embarrassment, and all round good fun – but it had a serious purpose
“Byte Night’s aim is to make people aware that youth homelessness is a real issue; there are teenagers in this city who don’t have a safe place to call home. And more than that, we want to do something about it.”
.@IBM staff get some shut-eye in Albert Square, #Manchester to help us raise the roof #pyjamming pic.twitter.com/DkJgxiLjlH
— Byte Night (@ByteNight) July 29, 2014
Annual fundraiser Byte Night began 17 years ago when 30 IT workers braved the cold to spend a night sleeping rough and donated £35,000 to the charity.
The event has become a tradition that continues to this day with more than 1,500 people getting involved this year.
The sleep-out event has spread to eight mostly urban locations across the country with firms such as RBS bank and fellow IT company Dell also getting involved.
The most recent figures show that in the last six months of 2013, more than 470 young people in the North West were registered as homeless.
Homeless Charlie Halliday, 17, is given the opportunity to stays at accommodation provided by Action for Children after events like Byte Night funded her shelter.
He said: “My mum had some personal problems which made it impossible for me to stay at home.
“I was in a very vulnerable position and I had nowhere to go, I was lucky that a room came up with Action for Children. I never had to sleep rough, but that’s only thanks to the charity.”
Byte Night officially launches on October 3 across the UK but swarms of people have already been getting involved with the fun on Twitter.
Get your pjs out, it’s time for #pyjamming! We want you to pose in your pjs in unusual places! pic.twitter.com/f5JzYOz2EO
— Action for Children (@actnforchildren) July 28, 2014
Residents in Manchester who want to join in with Byte Night to help raise awareness of youth homelessness can sign up online here.
Image courtesy of Action for Children via Youtube with thanks
