We talked with First Hope Association about Mobile Hygiene truck adventures. We asked, they answered.
1. Why Did You Build a Mobile Hygiene Truck? How Was The Idea Of Building A Mobile Hygiene Truck Born?
We had bilateral meetings with people in need and refugees who are living with difficulty in many cities we have visited since the first days of our operations. As a result of our interviews, we concluded that one of the most important needs is a clean, safe, healthy and functional place where they can do their personal care. However, this place to be created had to be located where it was needed, when needed. For this reason, we have adopted the idea that the space to be created must be portable. Later, we decided to implement this idea by transforming it into a project. During the project development phase, instead of ensuring that people only take a bath, we also installed washing machines in our trucks where they can wash their clothes. In addition, we fit the toilets into this vehicle.
2. How many people were involved in this project?
A total of 14 people took part in the project, including our association's employees and volunteers. Other than this number; the contributions of hundreds of donors who believe in the project and never withhold their support should also be mentioned ...
3. Who and How Have You Served Until Today?
We first put our mobile hygiene trucks into the service of those in need at the First Hope Refugee Centers located in Izmir Torbalı and Gaziantep. We received positive feedback from the services provided in both centers, especially from women and children. Our hygiene trucks attracted a lot of attention in these centers and perfectly served the personal hygiene needs of many people in need. Thanks to the constant cleaning control and careful work of our volunteers and association employees, we continued our humanitarian aid mission in these centers completely and happily.
After our first experience with our mobile hygiene trucks, we discussed the issue that these needs may also come to the fore in disaster areas. And in the first possible disaster, we decided to take our hygiene truck to the disaster area.
As a matter of fact, as one of the first NGOs to reach the earthquake zone in the Denizli Acıpayam earthquake in 2019, we established our hygiene truck and served in the region until the wounds caused by the earthquake were wrapped up. We received positive feedback from many earthquake victims and from the Turkish Red Crescent, AFAD and other NGOs working in the field. In addition to thousands of victims in the region, we also served many NGO volunteers with our mobile hygiene trucks.
Afterwards, we were with the disaster victims with our mobile hygiene trucks and our volunteers without losing the same sense of speed and responsibility in the Giresun flood disaster, Elazig earthquake and Izmir earthquake that took place in 2020.
The First Hope Association still continues its activities with hundreds of volunteers and donors from all over the world.