On Wednesday, June 9th, our two interns, Sonja and Anousha, went to meet homeless people, offering them 20 meal baskets with hygiene products. You might have seen our posts on our social networks (if not, check them out below) and in this article, Sonja and Anousha want to explain the philosophy behind their social project.

 

Circularity

Just like the members of Konligo, we believe that circularity is one of the keys to building tomorrow’s world. We find this so important that it was a criterion of choice in our search for an internship. Secondly, what is particularly important is circularity in our daily lives. This starts with our consumption of the so-called “necessities”. Since the sanitary crisis, you are probably familiar with them, they include general food products, hygiene products, cleaning products, etc. Indeed, by avoiding food waste, by using a product that is the least processed, with a minimum of ingredients, a minimum of packaging and that comes close to home; you are already participating in a virtuous model for the planet.

Therefore, for our social project, it seemed logical to us to include this value. This has resulted in the use of food from the anti-waste food chain and the creation of hygiene products with little packaging and few ingredients, which themselves come from an organic and sustainable neighbourhood grocery shop, Natural Corner.

 

Solidarity with the homeless people

At the beginning of May, Konligo offered each of us the opportunity to create our own solidarity project. It seemed obvious to both of us to combine our ideas and strengths. Before defining the ins and outs, we needed a theme that would combine our values and desires! Unfortunately, it was obvious… Since we arrived in Brussels, we have been using public transport every day and we have come across many homeless people. Therefore, we decided to prepare a meal basket for them, along with hygiene products, and go and meet them.

Not knowing the world of homelessness, it seemed essential to us to get closer to experienced people. This is where the Rolling Douche association comes in, as they are our neighbours at Circularium. Rolling Douche offers a mobile hygiene service, in the original form of a motor home specially equipped with decent sanitary facilities. This association of workers and volunteers is present every week at three fixed locations in Brussels. When we met them, they told us about the products that are necessary and missing in their mission: razors, deodorants, feminine hygiene products. This information helped us to prepare our baskets.

 

The initiative

To make these baskets, we called for donations by contacting different entities: local shops, department stores such as Carrefour, companies that are active in the fight against food waste, and foundations such as Humble Smile – a group of dental and development professionals who promote oral health and healthy smiles for everyone. The call for donations took place in two phases. Firstly, we contacted them by email or via a form provided by the entity. In a second phase, we went to meet the shopkeepers.

In addition to the donations, we also wanted to make some hygiene products: soap and shampoo. To do this, we used the budget allocated by Konligo and organised a workshop at Circularium on Wednesday, June 2nd. We tried to maximise circularity, using empty jars as containers for the shampoo and paper muffin moulds as moulds/packaging for the soap. Moreover, the products consist only of three to four ingredients each. These ingredients came from the local organic and sustainable grocery shop, Natural Corner.

On the day, we were able to provide about 20 meals (sandwiches, mixed salads, cold dishes, pastries, orange juice…) along with 25 homemade shampoos, 30 homemade soaps, 20 razors and 33 toothbrushes/toothpaste kits. This one-off event was a moment of sharing on all levels. We had time to share, laugh and understand who these people are. This one afternoon experience shows that we can make people happy with small gestures and try to fight social inequalities at our level through sharing.

The next day, we also collected a final donation from Carrefour (three large boxes of sanitary towels and tampons, about twenty deodorants, ten conditioners, moisturizers, soaps…) which we gave to Rolling Douche.

A big thank you

  • To Aline and Audrey from Carrefour Belgium, for helping us obtain the donation of sanitary towels and tampons, deodorants, conditioners, moisturizers, soaps…
  • To the Swedish company, The Humble Co., for their donation of amenity kits consisting of bamboo toothbrushes and natural toothpaste.
  • To a company fighting against food waste for their vouchers. Vouchers that enabled us to buy quality food from local traders.
  • To Natural Corner for their commercial gesture on the products needed to make homemade organic shampoos and soaps.
  • To the people who donated empty jars or participated in the workshop.

 

Did you know?

If you want to make your own shampoo, nothing could be simpler as only three ingredients are needed: 100mL of liquid Marseille soap, 100 mL of coconut milk and 20 drops of essential oils of your choice. Put all the ingredients in a container with a lid, close it well and shake to mix the ingredients. Before each use, remember to shake.
Storage: about 1 month.