In April, a group of students and staff from both the Energy & Biosciences Institute and the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology (PMB) in the Coates Lab at UC Berkeley began an effort to help ease the strain on at risk communities for maintaining proper Personal Protective Equipment supplies called the Clean Hands Project (CHP). In coordination with the Common Humanity Collective (CHC), a collaboration between UC Berkeley scientists, Bay Area activists, community leaders, and conscious neighbors, CHP teamed up to provide a supply of disinfecting wipes in addition to sanitizers and masks being produced within the collective.
Four months later, efforts by CHP volunteers have now produced and distributed 380 thousand hand and surface disinfecting wipes and over eight thousand masks for distribution to vulnerable individuals within the Bay Area community. Together with the face mask production team in PMB run by Chris Gee and the Department of Molecular and Cell Biology (MCB) hand sanitizer group, operated by Abrar Abidi and Yvonne Hao, the project has leveraged an extensive number of distribution volunteers that have managed to dispatch much needed supplies to a wide variety of homeless relief organizations and shelters, encampments, public and low-income housing developments, elderly care homes and hospices, domestic violence sanctuaries, food banks, frontline healthcare centers, as well as essential businesses and workers. This volunteer effort has thus far raised over four thousand dollars in support from generous donors.
CHP continues to work in concert with CHC and associated volunteer programs to provide a much needed and timely service to the local community with the absolute potential to save lives and prevent the spread of infection during this pandemic. Interested parties can learn more about these endeavors through the following links:
www.commonhumanitycollective.org and coateslab.berkeley.edu/clean-hands-project