Increasing numbers of people are unable to clean themselves, the founder of a group that helps people in hygiene poverty has said. 

As the cost of living soars, many people increasingly find themselves struggling to pay their bills and poverty is on the rise. 

“Hygiene poverty is the inability to afford everyday hygiene items that a lot of us take for ranted,” Sorcha Killian from the Hygiene Bank explained to Moncreiff. 

“If you get up in the morning, maybe you brush your hair, you brush your teeth, you have a shower, you get washed. Most people do that on autopilot and don’t think about it.

“But for an increasing number of people that isn’t a given anymore; people are having to cut back, they’re having to make choices about whether they purchase certain food items or heat or hygiene and ultimately hygiene is often the area that gets cut back on.” 

Hygiene poverty is “much more [common] than you would think” and there is strong demand for the Hygiene Bank’s services. 

The group believes that “it is not right that feeling clean should be a luxury or a privilege” and operates all across Ireland. 

People can drop off hygiene products such as shampoo or toothpaste to the Hygiene Bank in various locations and they’re located in various locations such as supermarkets or pharmacies. 

“Those products then get sent to us, we match them into piles, we separate them based on who needs them based on different skin requirements, hair requirements, what charity partner they’re going to,” Ms Killian continued. 

“And once we’ve sorted them, we then donate them to our local community charity partners.” 

If you would like to donate to the Hygiene Bank, you can do so here.

Main image: Man taking a shower.