Worth A Shot: Global Health through sustainable technology

We bridge Health disparities globally through education, improving access, implementing innovative technology, and grassroots intervention to impact population health positively. 

link to our efforts

Our organization, 'Worth A Shot' is a Global Health hub dedicated to improving the health of our communities, not only through education and empowerment but also through sustainable technology.

Infectious diseases present a huge global health economic, and healthcare burden, amid a constant battle against existing and new pathogens. The Covid 19 pandemic, calls attention to Health Promotion and providing cost-effective preventative measures to curb the spread of communicable diseases. Among these measures, hand hygiene has proven the most effective. Inadequate hand hygiene has emerged as a vital blind spot in the spread of infectious diseases. Low adherence to handwashing is also due to lack of access to clean water and soap, especially among the homeless population. 

Respiratory tract infections are largely caused by viruses and account for 69% of respiratory infections. These infections not only cause absenteeism, lack of productivity, and medical costs but also make the population vulnerable to more serious bacterial infections like pneumonia, asthma exacerbation and now, emerging infections like coronavirus 19.

Hand hygiene is the cornerstone of infection prevention in the community, with the potential to save a million lives a year globally from respiratory and diarrheal illnesses. These infections being the largest cause of child mortality worldwide—especially in developing countries—hand hygiene as a public health intervention has been called a “do-it-yourself vaccine” by the CDC.

Hospitals and health care systems strive to enforce hand hygiene amongst their staff and providers however hand hygiene in the homes and community which is often overlooked, is just as essential. Despite the considerable benefits of handwashing, a large percentage of people do not regularly wash their hands. It has been noted that only 5% of people wash their hands for the appropriate duration, 20 seconds or longer, (as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) after using the bathroom. These disparities expose lack of knowledge, and sometimes resources to achieve the recommended hygiene.

 In April 2020, WHO recommended that member states provide ‘‘universal access to public hand hygiene stations’’ to curb the spread of SARS-COV-2.Prioritizing public hand hygiene access is crucial to serving all, especially people experiencing homelessness. Public spaces, after all, are among the places where people experiencing homelessness live, and this population is significant. In 2005, the UN estimated that more than 100 million people were unhoused and more than 1 billion were inadequately housed.

 Thus, public handwashing access might serve as a primary hygiene resource for people experiencing homelessness, allowing them to perform other bodily hygiene behaviors that enable dignity, social inclusion, and improved living conditions.

Locally, Washington State has a homeless population of 40,000, which increases by an estimated 5% every year. These are people who perpetually lack access to clean water and hand hygiene amenities.

Our project 'Clean Hands Collective'aims to provide sustainable solutions to provide these amenities to this vulnerable population.

link to our project 

Installation of Mobile Hand Hygiene Units in Resource-Poor Communities to reduce the spread of communicable diseases

Our initial solution consisted of installing 15 Hand Hygiene Units, with a DIY design

outside community centers, soup kitchens, grocery stores and gas stations. The locations were based on demographics and areas with a higher homelessness population.

Each unit consisted of two 5-gallon buckets, placed one on top of another with a spigot attached to the top bucket which contains clean water. Attached to the top bucket is a spray bottle with sanitizing solution to sanitize the tap before use. Soap is available as well. Masks are provided with each unit for people to take with them. Direction on how to use the unit are printed and pasted near the unit.

We received a great response to these units, prompting us to install Seattle Street Sinks. 

The Seattle Street Sink is a do-it-yourself solution that provides a publicly accessible place for people to wash their hands. The sinks are made from off-the-shelf parts that connect to a hose bib on public or private property. Water from the sink drains to a trough filled with soil and water loving plants-a combination hand washing station and rain garden! The units consist of a porcelain sink with a touchless faucet, a soap dispenser and a planter. We have piloted the program with 6 sinks across Greater Seattle. 

“The Seattle Street Sink meets a huge community need...At the community sink, there’s no reason to feel shame for lacking access to a basic human right like hygiene.”— Jerred Clouse, Executive Director, ROOTS Young Adult Shelter

Seattle is a city known for its homelessness crisis—in 2015, the city declared a homelessness state of emergency, and today we have the third largest population of homeless individuals in the country.  When businesses and public buildings closed at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the unhoused suddenly had even less access to hand-washing facilities, making our most vulnerable population more vulnerable still.

People experiencing homelessness have very few places to use the restroom and shower, leaving a growing mess on the streets of Seattle and a further public health hazard that threatens people living outside. We are falling short of our moral responsibility to meet the hygiene needs of people experiencing homelessness

The Clean Hands Collective is a seemingly simple, bottom-up, community-based project that both augments and critiques this lack of hygiene infrastructure in the midst of a public health crisis. The project provides access to clean water, ensuring that all members of our community are able to protect themselves.

The sinks, strategically placed in areas with high rates of homelessness, provide access to clean water and hand hygiene facilities, thus limiting the spread of communicable diseases

Worth A Shot is a Youth-led Global Health organization focused on uplifting the health of the most vulnerable communities. Our team consists of high school, undergraduate pre-med, and medical students, with a common vision to impact Global Health positively. We have worked extensively with our local public health department and health systems including the University of Washington Medical Center as well as international health and grassroots organizations. 

We come from diverse backgrounds and bring different skills to our organization, including communication, IT, marketing,writing skills, public health, and outreach. We have several ongoing programs including public health,vaccine equity and clinics, health fairs, wellness, and mental health programs.

For our Program Clean Hands Collective, we made the DIY design for the mobile hand hygiene units first. This was improvised to the design of the Street Sinks with help of architects from the University of Washington, who created the design.

In addition to Clean Hands Collective, we have done a lot of work nationally and internationally in the area of public health. We organize vaccine clinics and have helped thousands of people get their vaccines.

By organizing health fairs, we have helped bridge health care disparities, providing preventive, primary, and secondary health care to the underserved, free of cost.  

We work on substance abuse and poisoning, through awareness sessions and outreach to schools.

We also work on mental health and our initiative Teen Cafe's provides a safe space for teens to share their stressors and receive life skills through licensed psychologists.

Through these volunteering efforts, we have gained a unique perspective in to the problems and challenges faced by underserved populations, Bipoc communities, and minorities. These experiences help us realize the magnitude of the problem and spurs us to find a solution.

Our team consists of diverse members in terms of education , cultural  backgrounds , ethnicities, and experiences. We also have a very international representation of team members , which makes us uniquely skilled to manage these programs 

Through our volunteering at the grassroots, surveys and direct interviews with the communities we serve, we were able to gauge the problems and work towards solutions.

For the clean hands collective , we initially designed  DIY mobile hand hygiene units which were placed outside grocery stores , community centers, and gas stations. The high utilization of these units prompted us to design and install seattle street sinks.

By recording the utilization of these units ( through direct observation), we are able to understand the need and the prioritization of the places that needed installation. Also, the availability of food guided our choice f places to install 

Our solution is an innovative, low-cost answer to the pressing problem of lack of hand hygiene amenities among the underserved. Hand hygiene has been called a do-it-yourself vaccine by the CDC for so many infectious diseases. 

Unfortunately, many people lack access to this basic amenity and especially people in underdeveloped countries struggle to get clean water for hand hygiene.

Our project Clean Hands Collective, serves to provide hand hygiene amenities to people on the street , who are especially vulnerable to communicable disease. This not only provides access, reduces disease , but also serves as an important visual symbol of hand hygiene.

The water used in the sink serves to irrigate the planters , causing no wastage.

This can be a catalytic solution around the world and can be utilized in developing countries as a low cost solution

Worth A Shot is focused on Global Health-- improving the health of vulnerable and underserved communities especially.

We have chapters in Haiti, Nigeria, India and Poland , where we are making efforts to bridge healthcare disparities, improve access and provide education and awareness.

Our impact goals nationally and internationally are to 

-continue to install street sinks and raise awareness about hand hygiene world wide. Also, sharing technology freely with people 

-uplift health , provide resources , education and improve physical and mental health.

Specifically , we will be organizing biannual health fairs to provide preventive , primary and secondary health care free of cost 

- mental health programs including Teen Cafe's to provide a safe space for youth to talk about bullying, anxiety, depression and their stressors , in the presence of counselors 

- launch mental health programs in schools and partner to provide more safe spaces in schools

-continue to install street sinks and raise awareness about hand hygiene world wide. Also, share technology freely with people 

For the Clean Hands Collective we used the following technology 

The Seattle Street Sink is made from a $30 utility sink fitted with a soap dispenser and a metering (auto shut–off) faucet connected to a nearby hose-bib with a garden house. The sink is bolted to a stock agricultural feed tank filled with soil and water loving plants, which acts as a rain garden to treat the grey water before being released. This also prevents the sink from being stolen.

A “wheelchair friendly” version is also available that is nearly ADA compliant. It is made from a galvanized pipe stanchion bolted to the rain garden tank with a modified baking pan serving as a washbasin.

Through our organization Worth A Shot, broadly, we have served more than a million people worldwide, through our various initiatives 

Our impact continues to grow and we plan to increase our global reach to 1.5 million in the next reach.

Specifically through Clean Hands Collective and the seattle street sinks, we serve the 12000 homeless people in seattle.

For clean hands collective  we plan to increase our reach to the 40,000 homeless population in Washington state in the next year 

I feel the most challenging barriers are 

1) cultural-- we need to continue building trust among communities worldwide and dispel myths on our journey to bridge healthcare disparities.

This includes greater outreach ,educational events , building partnerships and using innovative methods to reach communities

2)Financial -- funding barriers are always a challenge for a youth-led organization like ours. Though we have innovative ideas, lack of adequate funds will be a challenge 

We partner with King county public health -- to organize health-focused activities including vaccine equity, health fairs etc 

2) Gurudwara singh sabha Renton - to provide healthcare access, hosting health fairs , CPR training.

They are also a host site for the street sinks 

3) university of Washington Medicine -- for webinars, town halls and collaboration with providers