Essential Toiletries and some Beautiful Products for women at Cohort 4

Each year I start collecting essential toiletries for Christmas from early Autumn, and each year at around about this time I unpack all the boxes of goods in my office and divide them up into gift bags, baskets, or boxes for our women group members at Cohort 4. This year each woman will receive a large, woven belly basket full of goods.

Times are hard and this year we haven’t had many toiletry items donated to us, so it is with immense thanks to several organisations this Winter for enabling Cohort 4 to deliver this annual task to our community of women.

Thanks go to:

First, thanks go to the wonderful Coalfields Regeneration Trust for supporting Cohort 4 through the whole of the Autumn and Winter 2023/24. This enables us to offer hot food to our social and wellbeing groups throughout the colder period of the year and allows us to purchase a whole range of essential toiletries, household cleaning items and to help out individual families who have really struggled to make ends meet. It has also largely paid for all of the toiletries I have been collecting since September 2023 for the Christmas toiletry baskets.

Another thanks go to our friends Colette, Rosanne and Caroline from Malta who donated funding to Cohort 4 in exchange for training. This has paid for our baskets. Thanks to Jorden for your contribution also.

Huge thanks go to InKind Direct. You are just incredible!

InKind Direct works with nearly 4 thousand charitable organisations and companies to make it possible for community members to have access to the products they need to stay clean, safe and well. For many of our group members access to the essentials as well as good quality products and those deemed ‘luxury’ is something that gets left behind as the priority is on children, heat, electricity and food. Imagine the impact of a big basket full of products, something that adds to the wellbeing of women and their daughters. Without InKind Direct this year, I would not have been able to purchase high quality products at such huge savings. Thank you so much InKind Direct.

Since 2021 as a member of InKind Direct, Cohort 4 has received orders to the value of £17,740.99 for a cost of £1,808.25. This has been just incredible!

Another thanks is to all of the manufacturers and retailers who donate to InKind Direct. Especially notable over the past couple of months is Elemis. I have been able to purchase the most incredible products for our women at such low cost, there has been enough to fill baskets for over 35 women and their daughters this year. Not only with standard essentials but with really special quality products that will lift the self-worth, confidence, and wellbeing of our wonderful Cohort 4 women.

Thank you and Merry Christmas to the Coalfield’s Regeneration Trust, InKind Direct, Elemis, and all the retailers supporting community this year. You are making a difference – We are making a difference together.

Beverley