【100% Natural Friend’s Older Sister (2025)】

It started with a simple idea: that dignity00% Natural Friend’s Older Sister (2025)hygiene are inextricably linked. Doniece Sandoval was convinced homeless people deserve both, so ideas turned to action.

With the help of Google, an early investor that has donated $800,000 to date, Sandoval converted a defunct San Francisco city bus two years ago into a mobile shower unit for the homeless. She then turned the idea into a nonprofit, Lava Mae. Now, out of 5,000 entrants, she's the first recipient of the newly-formed KIND Foundation's $500,000 grand prize, for "transforming her community through kindness."

SEE ALSO: Survivors of homelessness talk about the one item they carried through it all

Lava Mae has upgraded from its first city bus -- it now has commercial shower trailers that still offer what the people it serves said they wanted most: privacy and safety. While the original concept had six shower stalls to account for quantity, Lava Mae buses have two full, private bathrooms, one of which is large enough to accommodate wheelchairs.

The organization, which is currently expanding to Los Angeles, hasn't stopped at showers alone -- its latest effort is the "pop-up care village," a pilot program featured in the video above in partnership with Project Homeless Connect and a small army of volunteers.

At the most recent pop-up in San Francisco on Nov. 29, in addition to the mobile shower bus, people experiencing homelessness could sign up for a free haircut with volunteers from Fellow Barber, and shop at a free "street store," where every guest could take up to 10 donated items.

Mashable Trend Report Decode what’s viral, what’s next, and what it all means. Sign up for Mashable’s weekly Trend Report newsletter. By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up!

Visitors could also have their teeth checked by dental hygienists, connect with housing and employment services, and have lunch.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Sandoval said an average of 300 people visit the village in the four-hour period it's open, near San Francisco's main public library. Based on exit interviews, she and her team will evaluate how well the services are working, and how often and on what scale to extend the villages into 2017.

"We'll be able to help cities everywhere deliver hygiene and dignity for their homeless neighbors."

While the recipients of KIND's prizes (the foundation gave out a total of $1.1 million this month) can use the funds for any purpose, Sandoval said she's dedicating the money to helping other communities reproduce her organization's work.

"Since Lava Mae began, we've received more than 1,200 requests to replicate our services from across the U.S. and around the world," she said in a press release. "Now, with the KIND Foundation's support, we'll be able to help cities everywhere deliver hygiene and dignity for their homeless neighbors."

In an interview with Mashable, Sandoval said volunteers coming together to provide services to the city's residents who need it give her "the most hope."

"I think people care a lot," she said. "They just haven't always known how to help."

---

Featured Video For You

---

This coat doubles as a sleeping bag to keep the homeless warm in the winter

---

Topics Social Good

• Entertainment
• Shopping
• Social Good
• Games
• Digital Culture
• Science
• Deals
• Life

• The Ovid of Loserdom
• Elon Musk’s Boring Company tunnel didn't impress Virginia officials
• Kylie Jenner's 'Dirrty' Christina Aguilera costume is pop culture perfection
• How to help survivors of Cyclone Idai
• Good Girls Gone Mad
• World Water Day: 7 ways to improve access to fresh water
• Cyclone Idai creates giant inland sea in Mozambique
• MoviePass co
• The Forgotten Man
• Sara Bareilles and Leslie Odom Jr. concocted your new favorite election song

• The Effusions and Offenses of Kaiser Wilhelm II
• Nineteenth
• Staff Picks: Bernard Berenson, Olivia Laing, Timothy Denevi
• Marguerite Duras’s “The Lover” Turns 30
• “Lady” and Its Discontents
• Inane Puppies: Charlotte Brontë on Men and Marriage
• Better Call Caravaggio: “Saul” Borrows from Baroque Painting
• Etel Adnan’s Leporellos
• Derrida’s Teacher Calls His Writing “Quite Incomprehensible”
• Too Many Books! We‘re in an Era of Overproduction

• Reinventing the Wheel
• Instagram artist brings weird seltzer water flavor fantasies to life
• Taipei raises rainbow flag at City Hall as thousands march in pride parade
• These 'Harry Potter' Halloween costumes all got the J.K. Rowling seal of approval
• NYT Strands hints, answers for May 24
• Amazon Prime launches in China
• Please enjoy Kylie Jenner's bizarre, sexy Snapchat story about making lasagna
• People in the Northern U.S. may see an aurora on Saturday night
• State of the Unions
• Everything coming to (and going from) Hulu in April 2019

• Go Tell it in the Mountain State
• Genius bong manufacturer loses Starbucks lawsuit
• Everything coming to (and going from) Hulu in April 2019
• Instagram tests letting you rethink your terrible new username
• Sail Trimmers
• Hold up, this tiny Beyoncé superfan has the cutest Halloween costume
• Courteney Cox revisits her old 'Friends' apartment on Instagram
• Tesla revives its referral program, but it’s a shadow of its former self
• Socialism or Barbarism?
• 5 bizarre facts about Elizabeth Holmes 'The Inventor' left out