The first pillar concerns the provision of sanitation services to people living in street situations or in generally precarious conditions. Hygiene is the basis of our work, through which the first step towards total reintegration is taken.
So, given the lack of adequate sanitation services, Ithaca has been operating the first mobile laundry unit in Europe since 2016. Our unit operates daily in Attica, while we also carry out activities in other cities, such as Patras.
We are also proud of our stable laundry structure at the Municipality of Athens’ Multipurpose Homeless Centre, which became operational at the start of the Covid pandemic in 2020, serving beneficiaries from the centre’s Dormitory and Day Centre, through an Ithaca employee from a vulnerable group.
Ithaca serves about 350 people a year, providing over 15 tons of clean clothes and linen, and each month serves about 100 people, 300 laundry loads and 1400 kilos of laundry.
At the same time, due to the nature of the Mobile Unit, Ithaca is involved in emergency interventions, such as natural disasters, extreme temperatures in order to relieve the affected and homeless population.
To date, our sanitation services have served over 9,000 beneficiaries, more than 35,000 visits have been made and over 170 tonnes of laundry have been returned clean.
