Young people tackle hygiene poverty in Castlemilk
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Just before Christmas the wonderful Health Issues in the Community (HIIC) tutor Kirsty Chapman joined Sarah Jane Mc Geown, our Comms and Events Officer, for a chat about her current HIIC youth group and what they have been up to. This conversation left Sarah Jane feeling inspired, excited, and in awe of the young people of Castlemilk. Read on and watch the interview to find out why.
Small gesture, big impact
Kirsty works at Castlemilk Youth Complex based in the Southside of Glasgow, and within her role she teaches HIIC to young people in the area. Kirsty mentions although she has been delivering HIIC for the past 4 years, the young people still surprise her with their ideas, projects, and commitment to the course.
To acknowledge their hard work Kirsty likes to offer a gift of encouragement to a student she feels has shone in the class. This gift is a bag of toiletry necessities, (hygiene poverty is a huge issue in this area) that the young person might need or might want to share with someone who they feel may need it more.
These hygiene bags sparked ideas, conversations, and solutions to a pressing issue in the area among the young people in her HIIC group - something that has since snowballed into a huge project that reached people all over Glasgow and will become a yearly event due to this year’s success.
The group project
For many organisations, each year before Christmas they take part in Secret Santa, CHEX included, buying gifts for colleagues. The HIIC group became aware of this and realised this could be a way to develop their project. This year the group kindly ask if organisations would like to donate the money they would usually spend on their colleagues to their group project. The group planned to only ask organisations, but once word got out, community members, family and friends and people across Glasgow wanted to get involved.
In the end with all the donations, the young people got together and made up 200 bags. Meaning 200 people in the Castlemilk area now have a month supply of toiletries. Each bag catered for different individual needs, something the young people spent a lot of time and effort on to get right.
The impact
As Kirsty mentions in the video, from their involvement in the project, the young people feel famous and most importantly feel listened to, potentially for the first time in their lives. One student said:
“Why are people being so kind… it's just a bunch of young people that want to start something..
..and Kirsty’s response was… “but that’s enough, people believe in you and want to support you and your voice is being heard”.
Not only is this amazing for building confidence and self-esteem but the group are now asking important questions about how they can make their communities better for all. This is exactly what HIIC does, it empowers individuals to tackle the issues that are important to them and their communities and encourages them to become active and engaged in these issues and to grow as individuals.
Watch the full interview below to hear more.