Yulia knows firsthand how difficult it is to wash clothes for a large family. She is a mother of three young children. Therefore, every time the mobile complex arrives in her native village of Mykhailivka, Mykolaiv region, it is a real event for them. Yulia’s family takes their pre-prepared bags of clothes and goes to do laundry and bathe.
“I don’t think we’ve ever missed your complex coming to the village. Every time we run as if bread has been delivered. I have three children: my eldest son is 7, my middle daughter will soon be 4, and my youngest is 2. So we always have a lot of laundry. While everything is being washed, we usually wash ourselves. We are given shower gel, shampoo, and soap for free on site. We don’t bring anything with us. For my son, showering in your complex is like a real adventure. He loves machines, and here there is such an unusual design—a machine with a shower and a washing machine inside. For me, your complex is a lifesaver. When I see it, I breathe a sigh of relief because I know that now I won’t have to carry heavy buckets of water to wash clothes and bathe the children,” – says Yulia.
There have always been water problems in Mykhailivka. There is no centralized water supply in the village. The only way to cook, wash, or do laundry is to drill a well. However, it is not cheap, so not every family can afford it. For those who do not have a well in their yard, it is very difficult to keep their family clean.
“We have a stove and a 10-liter pot. I put it on the stove and heat the water. That’s how we bathe and wash our clothes. It takes a lot of energy and water to bathe three children. Not to mention doing laundry for the whole family. We have a washing machine at home, but it broke down and is expensive to repair. So I wash by hand. I admit, it’s very difficult, but I want to keep things clean so that the children can wear clean clothes and be washed,” – the woman shares.
Yulia is not the only one who understands that compliance with basic sanitary and hygiene standards helps prevent the spread of various infectious diseases, which is critically important for children’s health, especially in wartime.
To maintain cleanliness in your family, you should follow the basic rules of personal hygiene: – wash your hands frequently with soap and take a full bath at least once a week; – Use necessary hygiene products such as soap, shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste, comb, wet wipes; – Be sure to wash food before eating; – Keep clothes and shoes clean, especially for children.
However, the war reduces access to basic necessities, especially for residents of frontline areas. Therefore, in order to help the affected population maintain sanitary and hygiene standards, our mobile complexes operate in those settlements where there is a need. In six months of operation, 15,587 residents of the Mykolaiv and Kherson regions have already received our assistance and were able to wash their clothes and take a shower.
The mobile complex operates as part of a project implemented by the charitable organization Stabilization Support Services Charitable Foundation and the German humanitarian organization Sign of Hope with financial support from the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO).