The Helpers | This week's stories of people stepping up in a pandemic

People across Waterloo region are stepping up to help their neighbours, front-line workers and more. 

This week on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition, we heard about help for hospitals and people who are homeless. 

Others have worked to develop a rapid and portable COVID-19 test kit for those that need it most, such as Indigenous communities, food processing plants and long-term care homes.

Here are those stories and more from this week.

Helping local businesses

Being a local business owner himself, Eric Silveira knows the challenges that small businesses are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

So he helped create the Random Act of Business campaign to help bring revenue to small businesses in Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge.

"We thought, 'We're a local business, so how can we keep these businesses going?'" said Silveira.

People can purchase a product from a local business through the Random Act of Business website and gift it to friends and family in the region. 

Rooms for hospital patients

St. Paul's University College at the University of Waterloo has offered 84 rooms in the school's Green Wing residence to house patients from Grand River Hospital (GRH) until the end of June.

The rooms will be used by patients who no longer require acute care in hospita and are awaiting transfers to other facilities.

"We realized, 'Well, we're going to have to shut the residence down for the summer.' I thought, 'I've got 84 hospital rooms here, they might be of value in some way,'" said Richard Myer, the principal at St. Paul's.

COVID-19 test kits

Guelph's Precision Biomonitoring has recently shifted gears to respond to the pandemic.

CEO and co-founder, Mario Thomas, said they typically use the DNA test kits they developed to detect viruses in animals and to check for contamination in food. Now, the company has adapted the tests to detect COVID-19.

Thomas said he hopes the kits will be used by groups that need it most, such as remote Indigenous communities, food processing plants and long-term care homes.

• COVID-19 | Coverage from CBC Kitchener-Waterloo
• COVID-19 | Cancellations, closures and changes in Waterloo region

Tiny homes for tent city tenants

A community-led project is looking to build tiny homes for people who are homeless in Kitchener. 

Jeff Willmer had been working on the project months before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, but now, he said, things have had to kick into high gear.

He hopes to build 15 to 20 tiny homes or shelters in the next few months. The homes would be for people who are otherwise living in tent cities.

It's a temporary place to live and a safe place to practice physical distancing as well, Willmer adds.