38 HEALTH AND SANITATION
Bringing hygiene to the homeless
By
Mike Flenniken
‘Love Sinks In’ delivers hand-washing stations to communities
who don’t have the means to effectively mitigate the threat of
Covid-19.
As Covid-19 spread throughout the world earlier
this year, health officials constantly stressed the
need for people to wash their hands regularly as
one of the main defences against contracting the
disease. For the more than half-million people in
the United States who are homeless, that is easier
said than done.
Terence Lester, who founded the Atlanta-based non-profit
Love Beyond Walls with his wife, Cecilia, decided to bring
portable sinks to the homeless population. Having slept on
the streets as a child and an adult, he was intimately familiar
with the challenges homeless people face. They formed
Love Beyond Walls to raise awareness and mobilise others
to help.
“I came up with the ‘Love Sinks In’ campaign in response
to the coronavirus,” he says. “As the rest of the world was
talking about sanitising and washing their hands, there is an
entire community of homeless people who can’t do any of
those things.”
the next morning. One night, he says he had nothing to eat
and asked a friend if his parents would allow him to come
to their house for dinner. They agreed, and while he was
over there his friend’s father told him something he’d never
heard before.
“He told me I would be a leader,” Lester says. “Up until this
point, I’d only heard the exact opposite – that I wouldn’t
amount to anything, I was a troublemaker, and I had nothing
to offer society. He really saw something in me that no other
adult or teacher noticed and spoke life into my future. This
moment was a seed that grew into the movement Love
Beyond Walls is today.”
After forming Love Beyond Walls in 2013, Lester says
his family allowed him to spend a few weeks on the
streets to understand the sufferings of those faced with
homelessness and poverty. “I was put out of shelters,
slept under bridges, ate handouts, begged for money,
Love Beyond Walls orders the donation-funded sinks –
each one costs about USD100 – through a manufacturer.
Volunteers manage the assembly, and routinely clean the
sinks and refill the water. The sinks are typically used about
100 times before needing to be serviced.
GP Russ Chaney, IAPMO CEO
In the spirit of the sharing
of unique experiences
that shape the plumbing
industries in our respective
nations, the following
article looks at a non-profit
organisation that sets
up portable sinks for the
homeless population as
part of an effort to stave
off COVID-19. Written by
IAPMO staff writer Mike
Flenniken, it is the next in
a regular series of similar
articles that will run in
Plumbing Africa.
“It is a public health necessity and basic human right for
people to have access to properly wash their hands,” Lester
says. There are now 51 portable sinks in the Atlanta area,
with a goal of 100. His friend, Grammy-winning Christian
hip-hop artist Lecrae Moore, donated 15 of them.
“I jumped at the opportunity to get out here and do
something,” Moore told CBS46 in Atlanta. “People care.
People see you, you’re valuable, you’re no less valuable than
anybody else who has four walls to live inside of. We see
you, we care about you and we’re here to serve.”
Lester knows what it’s like to be homeless. Due to a strained
relationship with his mother growing up, he says he found
more peace living on the street than he did inside their
home. He would sleep on benches and still go to school
IAPMO
Love Beyond Walls delivered more than 50 portable
sinks in the Atlanta area.
www.plumbingafrica.co.za @plumbingonline @plumbingonline @PlumbingAfricaOnline September 2020 Volume 26 I Number 07