This Sydney Charity Is Repurposing Yr Old Hotel Toiletries For The Homeless

Brushing your teeth day and night isn’t something you’d immediately think of as a luxury.

But for the homeless in Australia, it’s just that.

On any given night, 1 in 200 people find themselves homeless. Apart from not having adequate shelter and warmth on cold winter nights, those sleeping rough don’t have access to the basic hygiene products we take for granted.

That’s where a genius little Sydney-based charity comes in. Every Little Bit Helps collects basic toiletry essentials you’d find in your hotel bathroom or your airplane overnight pack, and donates them to men and women in need.

Through the charity, hotel toiletries and inflight sleep kits are collected and repurposed for shelters in need. Items like shampoo, toothbrushes, toothpaste, combs and soap are all donated and packaged up into kits.

“Daddy had a great job and he was happy. But then he lost his job, and he got angry. Mum and Dad had a big fight and Dad hit Mum. Now we live in our car” This is a very real scenario, and a contributor to some 17842 children under the age of 12 who were counted homeless in the 2011 census in Australia, these children were sleeping rough. One of the main reasons we choose to offer some of our care pack to local neighbourhood community centres is because we know this is a place people in need in the local community, including families will turn when they need local support. Next Friday when we are packing our care pack, we will be thinking about these children, as well as our other clients, and we will be hoping that our packs provide a small amount of comfort. We wish we would see this smiles on their faces when they discover that no only are there some wonderful, practical toiletries but also a block of Lint chocolate inside! As we do every week, please join us in thanking the following for their donations this week; Mary K SiroccoStyle (and those that donated via this drop off location in Willoughby) Adrian B Angela B Thank you also to Mr & Mrs Apthorp for their donation of packing boxes – these will come in very handy we start distributing our care packs. Have a wonderful weekend, and as always, thank you for remembering Every Little Bit Helps #carepacksforthehomeless #givingback #carepacks #homeless #youthhomelessness #everylittlehelps @every_little_bit_helps #charity #csr #notforprofit #australia #hoteltoiletries

A post shared by Every Little Bit Helps (@every_little_bit_helps) on Oct 20, 2016 at 3:21pm PDT

“It was very clear to me that a toothbrush and a bar of soap was something they couldn’t rely upon and that didn’t sit well with me,” founder of the charity, Katryna Robinson, told the ABC.

“We want to fill a void that is there and without our services what we found is simply they weren’t being offered.”

In what started as a single donation to some homeless men in Sydney, Every Little Bit Helps now donates to dozens of shelters around the country.

Over the past three years, more than 20,000 kits have been donated.

A post shared by Every Little Bit Helps (@every_little_bit_helps) on Jul 6, 2016 at 1:56am PDT

Currently, the charity is donating to homeless services in capital cities, but plans on finding more donors and couriers to take the kits to more remote areas. You can help by donating here.