Granting the Wish to Wash
How Soap for Hope Canada improves access to basic hygiene—and basic dignity
Irecently had the opportunity to join a street team providing outreach to people living in poverty. We handed out hygiene kits and other essentials, and the appreciation was overwhelming. People without the ability to a ord basic hygiene amenities don’t get these “luxuries.” Yet, the ability to wash one’s hands with soap, wash one’s hair with shampoo and conditioner and use lotion gives people a sense of pride and dignity many of us take for granted each day.
The reality is many people do not have adequate access to soap and other hygiene products. This is why Soap for Hope Canada is dedicated to making sure people don’t have to choose between their hygiene and other basic needs.
Joining the team at Soap for Hope has been gratifying and challenging. Working in the non-profit sector has opened my eyes to the number of organizations and people stepping forward in their communities to make a di erence. It has also shown me how many people are struggling. I have had the opportunity to connect with our community on levels I never thought possible and work with incredible people who put their hearts into helping others.
Our volunteers are so generous with their time and dedication to our program. We definitely have a loyal following of volunteers of all di erent ages. Everyone from a five-year-old to a senior understands the importance of washing their hands with soap. I have found that people love to volunteer with us because they get to see how their work is making a di erence. Some people like to help kids, others like to help seniors and others want to support the homeless; our program benefits them all.
We work with a range of community facilities, including shelters, transitional homes, food banks, low-income schools, seniors’ facilities, refugees and Indigenous communities. We work with over 400 community facilities in British Columbia and Alberta to provide linens and essential hygiene amenities—not only soap but also items such as feminine hygiene products and toothpaste.
Each community facility is di erent, so we spend a lot of time getting to know the needs of the people they serve. This helps us provide exactly what the recip
ients need. For example, people living on the street may need individual-sized products while financially insecure families need family-sized ones. Everyone we help is so appreciative of the essential hygiene amenities that we can provide, as it is common that community facilities do not have budgets for hygiene products.
We partner with the hospitality industry by taking their used amenities, linens, lost-and-found items and other reusables. More than 100 hotels love that we are a “one-stop shop” for picking up all the items they need to get rid of. It makes it easier for the staas they don’t have to figure out where to get rid of all the items they don’t need. It’s a win-win: hotels know they are giving back to their community and reducing their waste, while we get hygiene products into the hands of community members. It also ensures our work has an environmental impact by diverting useful products from landfill.
Our Hope for Soap
Historically, our five basic hygiene products—shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotion and soap—come from the hotel industry. When hotel occupancy plummeted due to the pandemic, it posed a tremendous challenge and aected the operations of Soap for Hope Canada in a drastic way. Meanwhile, more people needed help than ever. We quickly had to pivot to purchasing needed hygiene products, which meant we had to raise funds for them.
There were other challenges. When stay-at-home orders were in eect, we lost our volunteer sta. Not only did this aect our organization, it also took a mental toll on many of our volunteers. We found ways to send some work home to our regular volunteers, so they still felt connected and had a sense of purpose for their days in lockdown. In all, volunteers contributed more than 17,000 hours last year.
Our community facilities faced adversities as well. Some closed, while others were unable to accept donations. New facilities opened and some experienced a large increase in clients in need.
Despite the diculties, we were able to accommodate all these changes and actually increased how many people we helped in 2020, distributing more than 1.3 million hygiene products.
Going forward, our goal is to open a warehouse facility in each province, so we can care for communities across Canada. We are looking to bring new hotels into our program, so we can provide more community facilities with the basic hygiene amenities they need. We know that what we do and how we do it works. We look forward to continuing to grow across Canada and providing equal access to our hygiene amenities to all people.
As we like to say, “No one should have to hope for soap.”