VIENNA: On a wintry afternoon, tourists huddle around their guide outside Vienna’s central train station. But instead of exploring glitzy palaces, Barbara will take them around night shelters and soup kitchens as part of a new initiative aimed at helping homeless people like herself get back on their feet. Vienna is ranked one of the world’s most liveable cities with an excellent social security system, but thousands of people nonetheless fall through the cracks. Official data shows around 4,300 end up on the street every year, but the actual number is thought to be much higher. It’s hard to imagine that tour guide Barbara, with her flowing locks and cream suit, is included in that grim statistic. Diagnosed with breast cancer in 2014, the former gallery owner in her forties first lost her livelihood and then her flat while undergoing chemotherapy. After several months sleeping rough, she managed to get a bed in a homeless shelter. “I’m happy because my hair is long again and I’m totally healthy,” Barbara told her tour group. “I’m confident that I’ll soon have my own place again, not least because of this,” she added, referring to her new job at Shades Tours. Launched last year, the social start-up is part of a growing European trend that sees the needy hired as city guides as a way to help them reintegrate. While they show tourists in Paris around famous landmarks, the Vienna concept goes a step further to peel off the stigma attached to homelessness. “I wanted (the tours) to be more educational,” explained Shades Tours creator Perrine Schober, a 33-year-old tourism management graduate. “We (see) homelessness on a daily basis but we have no idea what it is actually about, so I guess that’s the reason people look away instead of trying to help,” the French-Austrian told AFP.