00:00InKind Direct is the UK's leading product-giving charity.
00:03We are on a mission to ensure that nobody goes without the essential products,
00:09the basics that all of us take for granted every day.
00:12And in particular, we're focused on hygiene property
00:15because the fact remains that actually millions of people
00:20are cutting back on basic hygiene products
00:23driven by the cost of living crisis,
00:25by the overall cost of shopping and living
00:28and having to make those really tough choices
00:31between heating and eating and keeping clean.
00:34One in four of us at the moment, actually 27% of the population,
00:39are cutting back on personal hygiene products to save money.
00:42And that's because the overall cost of living is feeling,
00:45people are feeling the pinch in all kinds of different ways.
00:48Four children in every classroom have lived with hygiene poverty
00:53in the last year or so.
00:55Four children in every classroom.
00:56Children are reporting going to school in dirty uniforms.
01:00They're reporting washing their hair in soap, sharing toothbrushes.
01:05And that's a big worry in and of itself in terms of physical well-being.
01:11But these children are also reporting ducking out of situations
01:16where they might feel they're going to stand out for the wrong reasons,
01:18where they might feel that they're going to be noticed
01:20because they don't smell right.
01:22So children, particularly girls, reporting dropping out of games, sports,
01:29keeping out of social situations where they might get close to their friends.
01:32And this follows through into later life.
01:35Our most recent research at In-Kind Direct looked at adults as well.
01:40And there we can see that adults are also reporting missing job interviews
01:45or actually not being able to go to work because they can't be clean.
01:49So hygiene poverty is a hidden crisis across the country and it's growing.
01:54And that's why at In-Kind Direct we want to talk about it more
01:57because it could happen to any of us and then we want to try and tackle it.
02:00And you've said to yourself that you've been going for around about 30 years as a charity.
02:05Hygiene poverty has grown significantly over that time.
02:09In the same way that food banks have.
02:10When I was growing up, I don't remember food banks being a thing.
02:13And now, really tragically, food banks are a really important and normal part of life.
02:20They shouldn't be, but they are.
02:22So for the next few weeks until the 8th of June,
02:25if you go into your local Tesco and you want to help,
02:28look for the In-Kind Direct logo on the shelf ends.
02:32And if you buy two participating products,
02:36two hygiene products that are participating in this campaign,
02:39a third gets donated to In-Kind Direct.
02:42And so far in these collaborations with Tesco
02:45and some of the leading hygiene brands in the country,
02:47we've raised nearly 5 million products.
02:49And those go through to our charitable network.
02:52We work with 9,000 food banks, community groups, primary schools,
02:56charities across the country.
02:57We can get the products to where they're needed.
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