STORIES
from the streets Founder & CEO of Invisible Cities, Zakia Moulaoui Guery, tells us about her urban tours by homeless guides
WHAT GAVE YOU THE IDEA FOR INVISIBLE CITIES?
I wanted to be a teacher but I ended up working more in the NGO/charity sector, at first supporting refugee families to learn French and then for the Homeless World Cup, an organisation that supports charity street soccer projects around the world and hosts a tournament every year to bring homeless people together through football. Having to do things like organise visas for people who had no fixed address made me realise the complexity of homelessness and opened my eyes to the stigma that followed them. I then went on to volunteer in a Greek refugee camp. The experience marked me and made me realise that people have incredible stories to tell as well as dreams for a better life.
HOW DID YOU SET UP?
I came back to the UK with the idea to run tours by homeless people and
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took part in the Good Ideas Academy in Edinburgh, a scheme which helps people kick-start non-profits. By the time I finished the six-month course Invisible Cities was up and running. I asked other charities, like Crisis and the Salvation Army, to introduce me to homeless people who might want to be tour guides. When I had four people ready to start I approached heritage and tourism organisations to volunteer and train them on how to be a good guide. We also approached companies to fund us for things like printing leaflets. In 2016 we launched our first two tours. For the first two years we were completely volunteer-led. I paid the guides but relied entirely on pro-bono support and had to have another job to pay the bills. It was hard work but worth it.
WHAT IS YOUR AIM?
We want to train our guides up with lots of skills so they can use us as a stepping stone to other jobs, perhaps
in tourism or hospitality. So far we’ve trained over 70 people, and not just in how to run tours but how to write a CV, interview skills, conflict resolution, first aid and more. Once they are in accommodation we help them with things like budgeting. We also partner with companies to offer training. Booking.com have given customer service training to our guides. That’s really nice because they can put something professional on their CV and it makes them feel part of the tourism industry.
HOW IS THE CONTENT FOR TOURS DECIDED?
Guides decide what they want to talk about during training and they often tie it in with their personal life. Our longest running guide, Sonny, bases his Edinburgh tour around crime and punishment because he’s done time in prison. Some people don’t want to talk about themselves or are scared of being judged so we don’t force it but it’s important that they talk
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