A tour company in Scotland has hired guides with a unique perspective – they are former homeless people who used to live on the streets of the cities they now lead visitors through.
Invisible Cities finds homeless people trying to turn their lives around and provides them with job training to turn them into guides who give personal tours.
The company operates in several cities including Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Sonny Murray, an Edinburgh tour guide, says Invisible Cities offered him a way to get off the streets for good.
“It was brutal, to be honest. “I was addicted to drugs and other things,” Murray, 45, told AFP of his time on the streets.
“I was shoplifting when I wasn't in prison, and I was coming back, and I was homeless on the streets, just like a revolving door,” he said.
Murray, who now trains other formerly homeless people in the tourism trade, said the reformed guides give personal tours to include aspects of cities that other tours might leave out.
“Crime and Punishment” is the theme of Murray's tours – and it begins, appropriately, at the site of a former gallows.
It also includes a tour of Scotland's leading homeless charity, Simon Community, and the Edinburgh Support Centre, where people living on the street can come, wash their clothes and shower.
“It's a terrible feeling to not be able to shower and wash your clothes after a few days,” Murray told AFP. “So I used to come here all the time.”
Malawi Qiri, one of the founders of Invisible Cities, said they believe this work leads to a more cohesive city, where less fortunate people are not simply ignored.
“All of a sudden, to enable people to be visible and the center of attention and lead a tour, I think that's really important,” Gehry told the outlet.
“It's about training more people and getting existing mentors to come forward so we can create more opportunities for others to become mentors.”
The Invisible Cities initiative, which began in 2016, has trained 130 guides offering its unique tours.
