Last year I saw a Cardiff Project Shoebox event on Facebook (collecting toiletries for women in Cardiff shelters), and decided to post it up on here to try and spread the word. Apparently it succeeded – organiser Mali Taylor-Powell ended up with 370 shoeboxes, plus loads more crates to give to those in need. This year, we want to help them smash that – but we need your help!
Too much stuff in your bathroom cabinet? Project Shoebox are collecting shoeboxes filled with unwanted toiletries to make gift boxes for women in refuges in Cardiff and the South Wales area.
Project Shoebox – Cardiff 2015 Facebook event page
(Not from round here? Check out the Shoebox Giving page instead)
This is a community project, where people can help women on their own doorsteps. Project Shoebox wants to help the women who will arrive at Cardiff’s refuges this Christmas. Many will arrive bruised and battered. Some will have young children with them. Some will have nothing more than the clothes they are wearing.
They want your unwanted toiletries like shampoo, body lotion, toothpaste and brushes – collected into shoeboxes! These will become a gift to give these women a new start – and remind them that people can and do care.
WHAT CAN YOU SEND?
You can send anything from your bathroom cabinet that’s unused (or very lightly used).
Think basics like toothbrushes, shower gel, shampoo – but also anything nice like cosmetics or face cream is very welcome. If you’re unsure, ask yourself: would you feel comfy giving this to a friend? If not, recycle it. There’s a big list of ideas further down!
HOW DO YOU GET YOUR DONATION TO PROJECT SHOEBOX?
There will be a donation station at the Sing and Inspire office in Cardiff Bay from Thursday 26 November – Sunday 6 December 2015.
Address:
Sing and Inspire, 11-12, Crichton House,
11-12 Mount Stuart Square, Cardiff CF10 5EE
Hours: 5pm-8pm, Mon-Tues-Thurs-Fri and also 10am-4pm Saturday and 11-6pm on Sunday: ring or text when you’re outside so someone can come and pick up your lovely donations!
Telephone number: 07565 769 036
LAST DAY FOR DONATIONS?
Sunday 6th December 2015 so they can be sorted, boxed, and delivered in time for Christmas!
IDEAS!
You can choose to donate individual items or make your very own shoebox gift. Feel free to get creative, but here are some ideas:
- New toothbrushes
- Toothpaste
- Shower Gel
- Flannels/sponges
- Facial wipes
- Deodorants
- Hairbrushes/combs/bobbles/clips & grips
- Sanitary products (sealed)
- Sample packets
- Moisturisers
- Perfumes
- Body Creams/Face creams
- Body scrub
- Make up/ Make up bags
- Nail polishes / Nail polish remover/ Files & Clippers
- Cotton wool
- Hairspray
The women’s shelters have said they are desperate for colouring books and pencils, so feel free to add in any of these sorts of things for children.
You can also choose to make (or donate things for) a baby box with things such as nappies, baby wipes, cotton buds, baby wash, small soft toys, etc.
Project Shoebox are NOT taking any donations of cash, they just want your stuff!
This is organiser Mali, with some boxes of goodies from last year. She told me about how she ended up setting up a Cardiff branch for Project Shoebox in 2014:
“Last year at Christmas time I stumbled across a Facebook page called Project Shoebox. It was a community project, with women organising themselves to help women in shelters in their area by filling a shoebox with all of the toiletries that a woman might need when arriving without any belongings, at Christmas, at a shelter.
“I immediately wanted to fill a shoebox and send it off, so I messaged the group and asked how to go about doing that. Unfortunately the Project was only running in parts of England and there wasn’t one in Wales where I live.
“So I decided to set one up. I contacted Women’s charities in South Wales to see if they were in need of these things and they said that they desperately were. Next, I made a Facebook event and invited everyone I knew to donate. Then they invited people they knew and it spread and it spread until we ended up with enough shoeboxes to donate to three different women’s charities in Cardiff; Women’s Aid, BAWSO and Llamau.”
Want to make a difference this Christmas? You can join the Project Shoebox 2015 Facebook event to find out more, or just follow the instructions above to take your donations to Sing and Inspire.
Happy shoebox making!
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