A bus brings haircuts, medical help to Caracas’s homeless
From Monday to Friday, a team of doctors, hair stylists and social workers drive around the capital of Venezuela in the Panabus, a vehicle that is being used to bring free aid and services to Caracas’ homeless population. However, the team does more than provide just short-term assistance. They also help connect people sleeping rough to longer-term housing solutions.
The revamped former public bus has been operational since October. The green and blue bus has a shower, a doctor’s office, a small salon and a kitchenette inside, france24.com wrote.
The project is run through the Santa en las Calles Foundation (Santa in the Streets). For the past 12 years, this organization has been providing gifts and meals to the neediest members of society each holiday season.
However, as the country plunges ever further into crisis, the team decided that it wanted to continue helping all year long. So was the beginning of the Panabus project, said Carlos De Veer, one of its’ founders.
“Unfortunately, seeing families with five- or six-year-old children looking for something to eat in trash dumps no longer surprises me”
An economic crisis has gripped Venezuela. A few years ago, I would have said that most people living in the streets were addicts. Now, even if there aren’t official statistics, we’ve seen a real rise in the number of families sleeping rough, sometimes with newborn babies.
I would estimate that about 20 percent of the people on the streets are unaccompanied minors. Unfortunately, seeing families with five- or six-year-old children looking for something to eat no longer surprises me.
In 2017, the ‘Santa en las calles’ team in Caracas got together to try to think of a project that we could run all year.
That’s when we got the idea for this bus, which would provide a place for homeless people to bathe, eat and get access to medical care.
Last February, De Veer and his colleagues bought an old public bus that was destined for the scrap yard. The foundation used its own funds as well as donations from several sponsors to completely renovate the bus. They also hired a full-time team.
Regular citizens came up with the idea for this project, but we needed professionals to run it. Now, we have a team of 12 people. We have a janitor, a driver and a manager, as well as a team of doctors and hair stylists who all take turns.
We also hired several mediators who approach homeless people in the streets and explain the services that the bus provides. These mediators were, at one time, homeless or addicts themselves so they understand how it works on the streets.
We make two rounds a day from Monday to Friday: One in the morning and one in the afternoon. We always drive a different route. Each day, we help six or seven people.
When someone climbs on the bus, we give them the opportunity to wash up and to change into clean clothes. Then, we start discussing solutions with the person. At first, people didn’t really believe in us. They aren’t used to free services so they were wary.
But as soon as we establish trust, we end up really having fun together. On occasion, if they are willing, we’ve brought addicts to treatment centers. For the time being, our biggest victory is finding housing for a young couple, Alejandra Miranda and Rubén Suárez, who lost their jobs and ended up on the streets with their newborn. We helped them get into temporary government housing.