Dimitra Kountourioti

Ithaca Laundry

Every night in Athens around 17000 people sleep in streets, parks, abandoned buildings or in insecure conditions. Homeless people lack basic human needs, such as food, medical care, job opportunities and sanitation, and face fierce social isolation. We came up with the idea of creating a mobile laundry for homeless people in the area of central Athens. This idea is simple but yet very meaningful for homeless people. Many of them have ranked the need for cleanliness higher than the need for food. Our vision is to help increase homeless people respect. This project will offer free laundry services to the homeless which will raise their health standards, reduce some of their strain and increase their self-esteem and dignity. This simple project aims to be a small but important step in the race to diminish the social exclusion of homeless people.