At The Hygiene Bank, we believe it is not right that feeling clean should be a luxury or a privilege for anyone in our society, yet many are living in poverty and cannot afford to stay clean. That is why our network of projects exists to give people access to the basics they need.
We are a grassroots, people-powered charity and social movement, grounded in community. Our passion stems from the injustice that people may be unable to fully participate in society due to hygiene poverty. This is why we work to inspire social change.
First and foremost, hygiene poverty is the priority (to those specifically in financial difficulty), but we are also able to distribute if the Charity/community initiative meets the criteria of “national crisis”.
We support local community partners with donations on a regular basis, these include local schools, foodbanks, women’s refuge, YMCA, homeless hostel, and Salvation Army. Recently we have provided gift bags to staff at Caterham Dene, ESH and other local NHS facilities. THB Godstone and Bletchingley works in partnership with THB Oxted and Edenbridge. This enables both projects to combine donations and when necessary, support more community partners over a wider area.
We are also lucky to have support from Kathryn Howarth, a local businesswoman from Oxted who frequently gives us donations of her hand made products such as hand cream, soap and bath salts. Her business is called Elysium Wellbeing in Oxted.
Generally we rely on donations from the public, either through our donation boxes in local shops and businesses or through our Amazon and Easho wishlists. Unfortunately for the last year we have had several local shops being unable to have donation boxes in the shop, and also several businesses are closed due to lockdown restrictions. This has meant we have relied on donations through our remaining open donation points, and through or wishlists. The open donation points are: Caterham: Morrisons and Boots. Oxted: Sainsburys, Boots, Morrisons and Paydens Pharmacy.
Easho –
These wishlists give people the chance to donate hygiene products to us directly rather than through our donation points. For further information contact Lynda Kennedy at: thbgodstone@gmail.com
