Cape Town - Project Hygiene is an initiative founded by two twenty-something friends, Natheefah Maroof and Naseera Mohamed from Cape Town’s southern suburbs, with a like-minded desire to help people in a small way.
During the month of Ramadaan, Muslims spend a lot of time doing charity work within their communities, and Natheefah mentioned that while there is a strong focus on food and clothing drives, they noticed that hygiene products were items often overlooked.
“Our main aim is to provide basic hygiene products to less fortunate individuals, in the hopes of alleviating their personal hygiene struggles. How amazing is it to simply get into a hot shower and seemingly wash our problems away? Things always seem better once you feel clean and refreshed. Why not then try and give everyone a chance at feeling that way?”
Their project was simply started by asking family and friends to donate cash towards packs in 2014, but it grew into something much larger than they could have hoped for.
“Simply put, we just want to help those who cannot always help themselves and spread to some kindness.
“We prefer to not collect items. We ask for monetary donations so that we can buy all the items ourselves that go into the packs, to maintain consistency in all the products and packs.
Each pack consists of roll of toilet paper, pads, toothbrushes, toothpaste, washcloth, deodorant, vaseline, a bar of soap and a pack of razors. They remove the sanitary pads from male packs, and for kids' packs they remove the pads, deodorant and razors.
A post shared by Project Hygiene (@projecthygienecpt) on Jun 2, 2016 at 1:25am PDT
“Our goal has remained the same throughout this initiative; to help as many people as we can,” Maroof said.
“From a financial aspect, it's always inspiring when we can increase the amount of donations we get in every year. However, whether we get R100 or R30 000, any donation is really appreciated.”
Project Hygiene can be reached via email [email protected] and instagram @projecthygienecpt.