There are many reasons why students sometimes do not go to class, one of them, and although it may seem surprising, is not having clean clothes.
“It sounds a bit unfortunate to hear this that parents sometimes do not have enough, even to wash the children’s clothes,” said Alfredo Velázquez.
And in keeping with the effort to reduce absenteeism rates among Astoria and Long Island City students, this Thursday organizations sponsored a free laundry service at 14th Street Laundry for these students.
“This service will benefit 430 families, we are launching this first project with 35 families who live in public buildings in New York, we are also helping families who just arrived in this country with this opportunity to wash clothes,” said Miguel Balbuena, deputy director of School and Community Programs for Zone 126.
Families will be able to bring and leave their children’s clothes at the laundry for a year, twice a month, so that they can be washed and thus the only concern for the little ones is their studies.
It has been proven that for certain families doing laundry has to take a backseat to more urgent needs, such as food and rent, and that is why 14th St. Laundry did not hesitate to be part of the project.
“There is a problem with children who cannot afford to do laundry and it makes them not want to go to school, because it does not give them a good image. So we decided to partner up and help these kids with one less worry,” explained Demetrios Vasisdis, owner of 14th Street Laundry.
In fact, the initiative is nothing new. Several schools in the city have their own laundry, but the fact that this service is managed by a local laundry, with renewable energy, makes it a model of the type of programs in which the city should invest more according to attendees.
After the program ends, the idea is that 3 schools in the area have their own laundry to give equity, a sense of self, belonging and improve the self-esteem of their students.
