(Photo credit: @imterencelester twitter)
Handwashing has become the central theme in the fight against the global COVID-19 Coronavirus crisis. The Center for Disease Control has advised everyone to wash their hands thoroughly and make limited contact with others—specifically those that have become infected—to quell the outbreak and flatten the curve, a term for decreasing the number of new cases over a longer period.
Now, that seems easy enough, right? Most of us have access to running water and soap, but what about the homeless? In all this crisis, very few are talking about the homeless and the role they may play in helping to stop or fuel this pandemic.
That’s where one Atlanta man, Terence Lester, has decided to step in. He has created a way to build mobile hand-washing stations to help the homeless stop the spread of the disease.
“Every single day for the last eight days, we have thought of ways to get water to people living on the streets during this crisis,” tweeted Terence Lester. “…and we found a way to build and assemble portable handwashing stations that holds up to 10 gallons of water.”
Lester is one of the organizers of Love Beyond Walls, a group that supports the needs of homeless residents. After seeing how the pandemic left many homeless residents with no resources, they decided to come together to create hand-washing stations to help protect them from becoming infected or infecting others.
Lester tells BlackEnterprise.com that after being homeless himself, it was critical that he give back to the community, knowing the challenges they face first hand.
“When I was experiencing homelessness being out there, you would have to go a mile or two to…… wash your hands or go to the bathroom,” Lester said to Shoppe Black. “I wanted to make sure we put stations in parts where people are under bridges, just in case someone wants to stop and wash their hands.”
It started when Lester got on the phone and started contacting RV manufactures, who could use technology that helps build portable hand-washing stations. Not before long, 15 portable machines have been donated to the group with each holding between 5 and 10 gallons of water. The organization will be placing them all over the cities in communities that need it most.
“I started wondering how homeless people would keep their hands cleans, it’s already difficult,” Lester said. “The reality is some people are going to live on the streets and be on the streets.”
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