Right to Shower Is the New Brand Ensuring Homeless People Have Access to Hygiene Services
If an unforeseen issue has ever led to the inconvenience of the water being temporarily turned off in your apartment, you've experienced that sudden realization of how easy it is to take for granted an otherwise everyday activity like bathing. But for those who don't have a place to call home, showering — or any other type of hygiene practice — is never taken granted because it's so often unattainable. That's why Unilever has launched a new brand that turns the products you use in your shower into tools that give homeless people access to their own showers.
The aptly named Right to Shower was created to address the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's estimate that, on any given day, over 550,000 Americans experience homeless and a lack of access to clean, safe showering spaces. "We believe access to cleanliness is a fundamental human right along with the hope, dignity, joy, and strength that can come from a single shower," reads a press release from Unilever. "In 2019, the brand is kicking off their commitment to ensure that everyone has access to a shower every day by donating 100 percent of profits from its vegan, naturally derived, multipurpose, head-to-toe cleansers to nonprofit organizations...that provide hygiene services to people living on the streets." Those organizations include Lava Mae, an organization that has converted public-transportation buses into showers and toilets on wheels, and other mobile hygiene charities across the country.
As if the cause weren't wonderful enough, Right to Shower products make it affordable and enjoyable to play a part in sharing the joy of showering with those less fortunate. The collection includes four $12 Body Washes: Dignity (a creamy blend of charcoal and cotton blossom), Hope (a soothing aloe and avocado gel cleanser), Joy (with a citrus and honeysuckle scent), and Strength (a ginger and currant blend). Each moisturizing, sulfate-free formula can be used not only as a body wash, but as hand soap, shampoo, and face wash, too.
There are also four coordinating, colorful Bar Soaps of the same names. Each one is vegan, handmade in small batches, packaged in a 100-percent recycled paper carton, and just $7. Both the Body Wash and the Bar Soap is now available on Amazon and at Whole Foods.
Of course, Right to Shower isn't the only way to help those affected by homeless. In addition to buying a cleanser or two, consider donating to or volunteering with one of these organizations to increase your impact.
National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty
Based in Washington, DC, the NLCHP is the only national legal group dedicated to ending and preventing homelessness. In its effort to hold the U.S. accountable to international standards, it "leverages its legal expertise and the pro bono power of the private bar in its fight to establish a right to housing."
Among its many invaluable services for LGBTQ youth, the Trevor Project "exhorts policymakers to fully fund programs that support homeless youth and to legislate environments of LGBTQ inclusion and affirmation." Estimating that LGBTQ youth makes up nearly 40 percent of the homeless youth population, often as a result of family rejection, the organization fights for inclusive, nondiscriminatory foster care and adoption policies.
One of the most widely recognized organizations addressing homelessness, Habitat for Humanity "partners with people in your community, and all over the world, to help them build or improve a place they can call home." And although it considers itself a Christian charity, it has strict non-proselytizing, non-discrimination policies so people of all beliefs and cultures can participate in and benefit from its shelter-building services.
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