For two young men from Brisbane who admit to not being very good at doing their washing, launching the world’s first free mobile laundry service for the homeless was perhaps a novel idea. But Nicholas Marchesi and Lucas Patchett, the 21-year-old co-founders of Orange Sky Laundry, say their initiative is not just about providing freshly cleaned clothes, something most of us take for granted. The service also aims to give rough sleepers the basic human right to hygiene, and restore their dignity and respect.
“We had this crazy idea to chuck a couple of washers in the back of a van,’’ says Marchesi of the project, which kicked off in October 2014. “Our goal was to connect communities, raise health standards for the homeless and improve the lives of others.” The laundry-on-wheels now pulls up at parks and drop-in centres in six cities across Australia: Brisbane, Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Gold Coast and from this week Adelaide, too, as well as areas of southeast Victoria.
Orange Sky Laundry is most possibly the world's first mobile laundry service for the homeless. Founded by Lucas Patchett and Nicholas Marchesi, the volunteer organisation was started up in July of 2015.
