A Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight
Most people in the UK have never had to choose between buying soap and buying food. They have never had to send their child to school knowing that the child has no toothpaste, no deodorant, and no sanitary products. But for a growing number of families, this is a daily reality.
Hygiene poverty is the inability to afford the basic products needed to stay clean, healthy, and dignified. It affects people across every age group and every community. And unlike food poverty, which has a well-established support infrastructure, hygiene poverty has almost none. There are no government programmes that cover soap, shampoo, or sanitary products. These items are taxed, unsubsidised, and treated as luxuries when they are anything but.
The Health Consequences Are Real and Measurable
Research published by Doximity in early 2026 found that hygiene poverty directly contributes to infection risk. People who cannot afford basic products are forced to brush teeth without toothpaste, share toothbrushes, reuse soiled nappies, or wash dishes with water alone. The same study reported that 66% of people experiencing hygiene poverty had increased anxiety, depression, and embarrassment, compounding physical risks with a significant mental health burden.
Women and girls face an additional layer. Without access to sanitary products, they resort to rags, newspapers, or nothing at all, creating serious risks of urinary tract infections, bacterial vaginosis, and toxic shock syndrome. In the UK, 1 in 7 women have struggled to afford period products. Globally, the figure reaches 500 million women and girls.
In schools, a Boots and Hygiene Bank survey found that 69% of UK teachers have noticed hygiene poverty among their pupils. Nearly three-quarters have taught students with body odour, and 62% have noticed children arriving with unbrushed teeth. These children are not failing at hygiene. They are being failed by a system that treats hygiene products as optional.
The Problem Is Getting Worse, Not Better
The cost-of-living crisis has pushed hygiene poverty to levels not seen in a generation. When household budgets tighten, hygiene products are among the first things to be cut. A family that cannot afford its energy bill will not prioritise shower gel. A mother choosing between nappies and sanitary pads will sacrifice her own needs first.
Globally, the picture is even starker. In refugee camps, rural communities, and urban slums, women and girls have reported trading sex for sanitary pads. Children miss weeks of school every month. Disease transmission accelerates in overcrowded settings where soap and clean water are scarce. The World Bank has identified hygiene promotion as the most cost-effective health intervention for reducing disease, yet funding for hygiene programmes remains a fraction of what goes to food and shelter.
Why Your Support Matters
Hygiene poverty is solvable. It is not a structural problem that requires decades of policy reform. It requires products, education, and distribution, all of which can be funded directly by individuals and organisations who care enough to act.
Bear Earth CIC exists to close this gap. We provide dignity kits containing sanitary pads, soap, towels, underwear, and essentials to women and girls in communities where these products are inaccessible. We deliver menstrual health education to break the stigma that keeps hygiene poverty hidden. And we channel 100% of our profits into this mission, operating across the UK and internationally.
Every donation, every sponsored kit, and every business partnership directly funds products that reach real women and girls. This is not an abstract cause. It is soap, pads, and underwear for someone who has none.
Help us reach more women and girls who are going without.
Sponsor a dignity kit or set up a monthly donation to Bear Earth CIC.
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