Imagine you were back at work now - or maybe you already are. Think how you’d feel if you’d arrived having not had a shower or been able to spray on deodorant because you’d run out until payday. Imagine you’d shared a toothbrush with your family members, that this afternoon, you might leak onto your chair through a makeshift sanitary towel made out of loo roll. You’d be embarrassed, right? You wouldn’t be able to concentrate on your work, or even talk to anyone. You’d be too ashamed. Now imagine all that when you’re twelve.
When Jo Jones and I founded Beauty Banks, we wanted to respond to a widespread need that was, to most of society, invisible. Most of us are fortunate enough to be able to throw everyday essentials like toothpaste, deodorant and tampons into a shopping basket without a second thought. But for many people facing poverty, choosing these basic hygiene items can mean going without food or heating. Our mission was and remains to galvanise the beauty industry and community in an effort to provide those in greatest need with the hygiene essentials that the rest of us take for granted.
But as we continue with our work, more of the insidious and often devastating consequences of hygiene poverty continue to reveal themselves. Struggling to maintain a basic level of hygiene is not always a problem that can be left at home. Hygiene poverty can, for instance, make it difficult for adults in poverty to make themselves presentable for job interview, while for many children it’s something that follows them into the school environment, where it can be a devastating cause of shame, bullying and absenteeism.
Because of this, as the UK’s children tentatively return to the classroom after lockdown, Beauty Banks is launching a new campaign called ‘The Kids Are Not Alright’, aimed at highlighting the awful stigma of ‘hygiene shaming’ and its corrosive effect on the self-esteem and mental health of our kids and young people.
The teachers we work with were telling us terrible stories of pupils being teased for smelling unclean, of kids avoiding play because they didn’t want to raise their arms in company, of teachers taking pupils discreetly to one side to hand them a roll-on brought from home. But nonetheless, we commissioned our own independent research, which has revealed the shocking extent of the hygiene poverty crisis in the classroom. It shows that 44% of teachers have witnessed children being bullied because of hygiene shaming, while 38% have themselves offered hygiene basics such as toothpaste and deodorant to pupils.
We at Beauty Banks believe that Hygiene Shaming is a two-fold issue. On the one hand, children feel ashamed when they can’t afford to be clean. But exacerbating this self-shame is peer-shaming, where children are embarrassed and bullied by schoolmates for the same reason. Hygiene shaming is an everyday part of modern-day poverty. If you can’t afford to be clean you can be stigmatised, victim-shamed and bullied. That stigma is internalised, and you shame and blame yourself. It’s a catastrophic barrier to learning. It’s extra baggage for kids and handicaps their progress. They deserve the same opportunities as every other pupil, and to play on a level school playing field.
The truth is that the shame of hygiene poverty can make learning harder and friendships more challenging. These matter hugely in a child's life and consequently, in a teacher's. We cannot in good conscience allow children to feel life limiting shame over a lack of deodorant, toothpaste and soap. We need to help teachers to give kids the hygiene essentials they need to thrive.
Our ‘The Kids Are Not Alright’ campaign is raising money to send personal care and hygiene products to children in need via their school. Beauty Banks will also be lobbying brands directly to donate unused products and launching a kids-4-kids programme that encourages children in schools not affected by hygiene poverty to fundraise, support a school in need and learn about how their words about another child’s cleanliness aren’t fair, considerate or kind. Because the shame shouldn’t belong there. That’s on a wealthy country where kids can’t afford a wash.
You can help us here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/endhygieneshaming
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