Marked Absent
Hygiene poverty is marking children absent from school
Across the UK, millions of children are missing school simply because they don’t have access to basic hygiene essentials like soap, laundry detergent or toothbrushes.
- 3 million school children in the UK have experienced hygiene poverty in the last year.
- This leads to over 23 million lost days of learning every year.
- Teachers say it damages children’s mental health (75%), future self-worth (76%), and ability to form friendships (65%).
“come in [to school] with a filthy uniform after the summer holidays, indicating it had not been washed for 6 weeks”
The “Marked Absent” display brings to life the hidden crisis hygiene poverty is. The school uniforms on show were donated anonymously by pupils affected by hygiene poverty, including from smol’s “Suds in Schools” programme, which installs free laundry facilities in schools nationwide.
For one week, the display invites passers-by to confront the reality behind the statistics, and most importantly, to take action,
The impacts of hygiene poverty
Lost Learning
Social Isolation
Health Risks
Future Barriers
How you can help
A clean uniform. Shampoo. Toothpaste.
The basics that many of us take for granted are the difference between a child attending school or staying home.
Your donation to The Hygiene Bank helps provide these essentials to children and families in need , so no child is marked absent for something we can change.
Visit smol’s website and find out how you can support the “Suds in Schools” programme to roll it out to further schools in need of support. With 95% of teachers saying that access to washing facilities would have a positive impact on children and families in hygiene poverty, smol are on a mission to install as many as possible.
Talk about it!
Help us raise awareness of this hidden crisis and break the stigma around hygiene poverty.
Share our campaign on social media and tell yous friends, colleagues and family about it.