Ali said this sentence to me. Ali is homeless and has been living on the streets for several years. He is dependent on the help of other people. Even though he would really like to help other people himself.

“Love” - Gerry answers when asked “What would help him in his situation”. Gerry is also homeless. For the first time in his life. At the age of 69.

In our society, we mostly only talk about the people who have made it. People who are “successful.” But what about those who haven’t made it?

People who have fallen off the tracks. People we see every day. People who sometimes scare us. People we ignore, we just look away.

It's their own fault. They didn't pay attention properly. They didn't "perform" enough. Who actually evaluates performance? And isn't the daily struggle for survival on the street actually a much greater achievement than what we do here every day?

Homeless people are people just like you and me.

People who have feelings. People who need support in their lives. People who have stories to tell.

You can now listen to these exact stories in the podcast “Faces” .

Last year I went out on the streets and talked to homeless people to give them a platform to share their stories and whatever they might want to share.

The podcast is part of a collection by Räglan. The wonderful Nadine Magner listened to the stories and drew the people we so often overlook.

As always, parts of the sale will be donated - this time to Care4Cologne, who are out and about twice a week to make life a little easier for the homeless.

Did I have to step out of my comfort zone for the project? Quite a lot. Do you know who had to do that even more? The people who opened up to me for conversations.

I hope all the more that Jan, Gerry, Scarlett, Ali, Jürgen and others have not shown themselves to be so vulnerable for nothing and that as many of you as possible will listen to their stories.

Oh, by the way: Gerry is someone who actually made it. He was financially secure at 40 and retired. Why did he end up homeless? You can find out about that in the podcast “Faces”.