A person working as a volunteer.

July marks the beginning of National Hygiene Week: a week dedicated to raising awareness of hygiene poverty in the UK. Hygiene poverty means not being able to afford many of the cleaning products or toiletries that many of us take for granted. Currently, there are over 14 million people living in poverty in the United Kingdom, which is one fifth of our population. Here are a few ways you can show your support during National Hygiene Week.

Donating

Assorted toiletries.

Many foodbanks don’t receive enough toiletry donations. This means that a lot of families have to go without, even though all hygiene products are essentials. If you want to help, then why not donate some toiletries and cleaning products to food banks? Items like sanitary hygiene products, and toiletries like: toothbrushes; toothpaste; shampoo; deodorant; and, lip balm, are all things that food banks usually are running low on. If you’re unsure where your nearest food bank is, or what donations they might need, then you can check here.

 

Volunteering

Volunteers.

The Hygiene Bank, who founded National Hygiene Week, are always looking for volunteers to help, either in your local Hygiene Bank, or by delivering hygiene parcels around your area. Volunteering is a great way to spend your time and can really help charities to do more in your local community.  If this is something you would like to be involved in, there is more information here.

 

Write to Your MP

A person writing.

Hygiene poverty affects one fifth of the UK population, and it is important that the people who represent us know how big of an issue it is. The Hygiene Bank has created a template that can either be used as a letter or email, in order to tell them about what they need to do to end hygiene poverty. If you would like to get in touch with your MP, you can find their email address here, and the letter template here.