WASH Bus

The WASH Bus was inspired by GoBanyo, a Hamburg based initiative and we have the full support of their team for our Cape Town project. The WASH Bus in Cape Town aims to support the unsheltered homeless; in Central Cape Town, Claremont, Muizenberg and Mitchell’s Plain. Looking at remedial measures to ensure they have access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene services.

Our WASH Bus initiative recognises that by denying a human their basic right to water and sanitation, their marginal position within society is accentuated. The main objective of our WASH Bus initiative is to restore the dignity of Cape Town’s unsheltered homeless population by providing them their basic human right to a shower and toilet facility.

We have collaborated with key partners that provide psycho-social care, harm reduction and other social services to create a sustainable pathway out of homelessness for people.

In December 2021 we launched an exhibition and presented the WASH initiative to City officials and the larger NGO network by our key partner and collaborator Baz Art alongside us as Viva con Agua South Africa at Villa Viva Cape Town our base. This was to determine its efficacy and to receive valuable feedback and further support. It is important to us that working in collaboration as part of the broader social network will ensure better impact and change for this initiative. Read more about the exhibition and further info about the project by Baz Art here.

“For many of us, accessing water is an act we don’t think about. For the homeless, it’s a daily difficulty. That’s why critical wash facilities will be provided to some of Cape Town’s most vulnerable and overlooked people.” Read more here by EWN. You can also watch the interview on eNCA with Ajay on YouTube here.

eNCA’s Tanya Nefdt also reported on the project and visited the exhibition at Villa Viva Cape Town. “A new project will soon bring a sense of dignity and pride to Cape Town’s most vulnerable community – the homeless.” Watch about the interviews with those affected and team members by the organisations here.

Ajay Paul our co-founder and director also shared some insight to the project and what Viva con Agua South Africa is doing on Cape Talk Radio on the lunch with Pippa Hudson show and you can listen to it all here.

Ajay concludes,

“For many of us, the hardest part of keeping clean is finding the energy to get out of bed to turn on the shower. It’s simply unimaginable the effort homeless people must go to in order to wash themselves and access basic sanitation services. It robs people of their dignity. It takes away their confidence to pursue work and a livelihood. Our project is a simple, innovative solution to one part of the problem. It’s not a silver bullet. It’s the start of a bigger journey to empower people to rebuild their lives. It’s a privilege to be part of this.”

Read the full story as shared by greencconomy.media here.