A heartbreaking video of a homeless, little girl crying after being told that she’ll be spending her Christmas for the third time in a hostel has gone viral on the internet.
The video featuring 4-year-old Poppy from Dublin, Ireland, sheds light on the plight of the victims of the country’s severe housing crisis.
In the video, the little girl can be seen sitting on a bed in her hostel, sobbing over that she has got no place to call home this festive season.
For the last two years, the young girl and her 30-year-old mother, Leanne Dunleavy, have been switching homeless shelters in Dublin.
Dunleavy, who is a hair stylist, became homeless after she experienced some unforeseen circumstances in her career.
In the heart-wrenching clip shared by Dunleavy on her Facebook, little Poppy can be seen in a distraught condition as tears run down her reddish cheeks.
When Dunleavy asks her why she was crying, she replies: ‘Because I have nowhere to stay, because we have nowhere else.’
The mother then asks her how does that make her feel, to which the little girl replies: ‘Sad!’
In a bid to make her feel better, Dunleavy tells her daughter: ‘But we’re going to be together.’ Little Poppy, however, doesn’t calm down and asserts that she was missing her dog ‘Milly.’
Dunleavy again tries to console her, this time saying: ‘When we get a new house we’ll get a new dog.’
‘I don’t want to get a new dog,’ Poppy cries out before Dunleavy replies: ‘We’ll get a new house though won’t we.’ The video then comes to an end with little Poppy asking: ‘Can I get a new dog?’
The video has been viewed by more than 167,000 times on Facebook alone, with the internet users blaming the country’s government for the family’s tragic situation.
One user commented: ‘Poor child everyone needs to get out and march, bring this country to a stand still, that’s what needs to happen.’
Another wrote: ‘Utterly heartbreaking to watch, this country is a bloody disgrace.’
In an interview with Daily Mail, Dunleavy said no child should go through the trauma of being homeless, adding: ‘I just wanted to show the government how it’s not only the parents that suffer because we get on with it.
‘It’s tearing the children apart, no child should be spending Christmas for the third time in homeless accommodation and by the looks of things it will probably be a fourth Christmas next year.
‘Loads of lovely people have contacted me and a lot of women that are in the same situation and other people that used to be in the same situation.’