No child in school should have to worry how they look or smell

For those marooned in hygiene poverty, choosing to be clean and presentable can mean going without food or heating

Sali Hughes,Jo Jones
Tuesday 15 September 2020 14:57 BST
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We’ve all been there. An illness or injury that prevents you from having a bath or washing your hair for a few days. A boiler on the blink. The morning after a night before, and you can’t get your hands on the essential toiletries you need to give you the confidence to face the world. It can be a terribly uncomfortable sensation, a shame that can make you briefly want to hide away from other people until you’ve found the sanctuary of a hot shower or the toothbrush with your name on it.  

Unfortunately, for millions of people across the UK, this shame is not fleeting. It’s a constant presence.

When we launched Beauty Banks, we wanted to bring attention to a need that most of are lucky enough to rarely – if ever – think about. 

Most of us can throw everyday essentials such as toothpaste, deodorant and tampons into a shopping basket without a second thought. But for those marooned in hygiene poverty, choosing to be clean and presentable can mean going without food or heating.  

And it’s not a problem that can be hidden behind a front door. Among the main inspirations behind Beauty Banks were our schoolteacher friends who told us they regularly supply hygiene products like deodorant and soap to students whose families can’t afford them. The problems these kids are having accessing items like deodorant and tampons at home is leading to embarrassment, bullying and absenteeism; we were shocked and saddened to learn that girls were using toilet roll as sanitary pads and that some were skipping school altogether to escape the shame they experienced.

This month, as schools in the UK reopened, we launched our new campaign, The Kids Are Not Alright. We want to support as many children as possible living in hygiene poverty and remove the barrier to learning that poor hygiene creates. We commissioned an independent survey amongst hundreds of secondary school teachers in Britain, which revealed that 38 per cent of teachers have offered their pupils hygiene items like toothpaste and deodorant. Moreover, as if things weren’t bad enough, a third of teachers anticipate a rise in hygiene poverty due to the coronavirus.

Almost half – 44 per cent – of teachers told us they had witnessed children being bullied because they couldn't afford to be clean, while a third had seen children's mental health suffer because of it.  

While the root of hygiene poverty is the lack of access to basic toiletries, its effects are made much worse by the cruelty of this kind of “hygiene shaming”. If the shame a child feels because they can’t afford to be clean is not bad enough, the shame and distress piled on top by insensitive peers can have a terrible impact, not just on their ability to learn but on their entire mental wellbeing.

Our campaign is raising money to supply personal-care and hygiene products that will be distributed by schools, in a sensitive and discreet way, to children in urgent need. Beauty Banks is also lobbying brands directly to donate unused products, and is launching a Kids-4-Kids programme to encourage children in schools not affected by hygiene poverty to fundraise and support a school in need.  

Navigating through school life is hard enough for most kids. For many, the journey is made so much harder by the difficulty of maintaining a level of personal care that the rest of us take for granted.  

We hope to make that journey easier and help students fulfil their potential, instead of worrying about how they look and smell to others. We – and you – can unburden them of those unfair distractions, and let them get on with the real business of childhood: learning, reading, playing.

You can donate to Beauty Banks’ campaign here, or get in touch via email. Follow the campaign on Instagram @thebeautybanks

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