She had no sanitary pads. No one knew and no one helped

Read the compelling article.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/03/health/uk-period-poverty-asequals-intl/index.html

Rachel Krengel experienced period poverty as a young mother. Photo: Sarah Tilotta for CNN
Ten percent of girls and women aged between 14 and 21 surveyed in 2017 by children’s charity Plan International UK said they had experienced being unable to afford sanitary products. Four in ten said they had used toilet paper because they had struggled to afford sanitary wear. This is in modern United Kingdom. Shocking! And this is why organisations like The Hygiene Bank are needed.

What started as a WhatsApp message to friends on 14th of August to collect a few toiletries that I would then take to the local foodbank, has truly overwhelmed me. In the last seven weeks what started as ‘ I’ has become we.

• We have 15 committed and amazing project coordinators who in turn have equally fantastic area volunteers that support them.
• We’ve distributed over 2 tonnes of essential toiletries to the Loaves & Fishes Foodbank in Sevenoaks, Borough Green Foodbank, Westerham Foodbank, The Family Foodbank in Ashford, The Tonbridge Baptist Church Foodbank, Nourish Community Foodbank in Tunbridge Wells, The Family Foodbank in Ashford, local womens refuge, SAHA Calverley Hill Hostel and The Red Box Project.
• We have 50+ collection boxes in shops, cafes, leisure centres, schools, churches and offices around Kent.
• Our reach has gone beyond Kent and we have projects due to start in Oxted Surrey, Essex, Hove, Bedford and Castle Donnington.
• We’ve raised over £2000 through crowd funding.
• We have over 1000 followers on instagram and more on Facebook.

*We’ve had media attention from BBC South East News, KmFm radio and many of the local papers.

*KM TV are filming us next week

*The amazing talented Hayley Squires who plays Katie in the film that started all this contacted me to say she’d seen it on the news and she’d love to know more and help. WOW!

• We are in the middle of registering as a charity with UK wide reach.
• Amazing, talented trustees have come forward to form our board including: the principal social worker that oversees all of Kent, a management consultant with a wealth of charity knowledge and was chief exec in the NHS, a Deputy Head teacher and the CFO of a bank.

The success of The Hygiene Bank is down to the collaboration and team work from a group of people who believe fundamentally that being clean is not a luxury but a basic human dignity. And it’s down to you lovely people who support us, shop and donate.