Pope Francis opened two new laundromats for the homeless in the northern Italian city of Turin on Thursday, Nov. 2. The new facilities include washers and dryers donated by Haier as well as detergent. In addition to the laundry services, there are hot showers, and a full range of personal hygiene products will be available, such as shampoo, conditioners, body washes, razors, and shaving creams provided by Procter & Gamble. 

These services are “offered free of charge to the poorest people, in particular those without a fixed abode,” Calvi said. 

This is not the first such project that the pope has launched in Italy. In 2015 Pope Francis launched a barbershop for the poor, a service run by volunteers, to help provide essential grooming services for Rome’s indigent and homeless. 

In the warm hum of the laundromat, quarters gleam like tiny silver suns. To most people they’re pocket change—forgotten in cup holders, rattling in jars—but inside Purity Laundry Project, they’re pure treasure. Each one is a little coin of possibility: it can spin a washer, warm a dryer, and send someone home with clean clothes and a lighter heart.

That’s why quarters here are as precious as gold. They unlock dignity load by load, folding hope into every warm towel and fresh shirt. And while the machines never stop working, the quarters do eventually run out. So Purity Laundry Project can always use more rolls of these tiny treasures—because behind every coin is a story waiting to be washed clean and a person ready to shine.