Two Durham University friends were pelted with eggs by drunken youngsters when they were volunteering to help homeless people on the streets in England.
Tamzin Williams, 21, and Sarah Garner, 20, were handing out hot water bottles and food to the rough sleepers, who had just been verbally abused by the sozzled passersby.
But the thugs became even angrier and pelted Tamzin and Sarah with raw eggs in a vile attack in Durham city center. The women and their bags were covered in egg.
Tamzin and Sarah, both students at Durham University, took to social media to urge others to show the realities of the shocking behavior homeless people face from others on a daily basis.
“It was like the worst parts of society had come out that night, with drunk people throwing eggs and abuse, and people neglecting lockdown rules," said Sarah, education and English student originally from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.
“We didn’t even realize we’d been egged until we got home and I took my coat off,“ she said. ”We were annoyed at the audacity of the people doing it. It was very childish.”
“We were only out to try and do good so it was a shame that we were targeted and fell victim to that.”
Sarah and Tamzin were attacked while they were volunteering for the Heat for the Homeless scheme in Durham.
“That evening we had already handed out two water bottles and had a chat with some homeless people to listen to their stories," said Tamzin, a sociology student originally from Portishead, Somerset.
“There were people hurling abuse and being rude towards the homeless people in the distance as well,“ she said, ”so we had already witnessed some quite distressing behavior that night.”
Tamzin added: “We were walking down a street to get to another area to see if we could reach out to any other homeless people and as we were walking, people from high up were throwing eggs from a roof.
“They were splatting all around us and some girls near us were screaming.
“It took us a moment to realize what was going on, that there were eggs being thrown at us.”
The girls quickly rushed to get out of the firing line and continued their evening volunteering, only realizing the damage of the attack on their clothes later on.
They shared their experience on social media, hoping their story might motivate others to fight for change after seeing how people treat those sleeping rough.
Sarah said: “It does show the reality of how these homeless people are living so hopefully by sharing what actually goes on, people might feel more strongly about the issue of homelessness and be inspired to do something.
“Students get a lot of hate for things such as their drunken behavior but we’re just trying to show that, amongst those, there are some that are trying to be good as well.”
Tamzin added: “It was a lot of awful things to witness in one night. We were both really overwhelmed by the positive reaction that we got from posting about it and people have reached out to ask about the charity we were working for that night.
“It would be nice to try and encourage people to volunteer if they can or get involved to play a part in trying to make change rather than just walking past rough sleepers and not acknowledging them.
“Talking about this is going to create a positive outcome that will make what did happen seem not so bad and worth it in the end.”
