Those Who Give Hope with Mobile Hygiene Truck
One of the inspiring stories of civil society; First Hope Association, which sets out to think that there is still hope as the children laugh.

We talked to First Hope Association about Mobile Hygiene truck adventures. When 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 refugees and needy people who have been living with difficulty in many provinces 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 environment where they can do their personal cleaning. However, this environment to be created had to be found at the time of need, where it was needed. For this reason, we have adopted the idea that the environment to be created must be portable. Later, we decided to implement this idea by projecting it. During the projecting phase, instead of ensuring that people only wash, we also installed washing machines in our trucks where they can also wash their clothes. In addition, we fit the toilets, where people can meet their toilet needs, into this vehicle.

2. How Many People Have Participated in This Project?

A total of 14 people took part in the project, including our association employees, as well as our volunteers. Other than this number, however; The contributions of hundreds of donors who love the project and never withhold their support for our association, of course, can never be overlooked.

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 both centers, especially women and children. Our hygiene trucks attracted a lot of attention in these centers and perfectly served the personal cleaning 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 disaster to occur, 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 with happiness in the region until the wounds caused by the earthquake were wrapped up. We again received positive feedback from many earthquake victims, especially from the Turkish Red Crescent, AFAD and similar NGOs. 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 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 its 100s of volunteers and donors from all over the world.

Source: https://www.stgm.org.tr/mobil-hijyen-tiri-umut-verenler