Students making hygiene kits for city's homeless

The group hopes to support 500 people with the hygiene kits by 2025

Students are supporting a city's homeless population by making hygiene kits and donating them to local charities.

Soapful Hands is a student-led initiative at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich, Norfolk, which aims to tackle hygiene poverty.

Kits include items such as shower gel, body spray, a brush and handmade soap - which is made on campus.

Jan Sheldon, chief executive of the Norwich-based charity St Martins Housing Trust, said the kits showed that homeless people "were valued".

"So many people are feeling the pinch in the current economic climate, so donations of hygiene supplies make a huge difference to the people we support," she added.

The hygiene kits are tailored towards both males and females

Almost 20 of the kits have been distributed so far, with a further 30 ready to be handed out.

YMCA Norfolk and the Mitre Café on Earlham Road are among other organisations that have benefited.

Soapful Hands was created as part of the Enactus UEA society, which encourages students to start social enterprises for the "benefit of the local community".

Enactus is a global network which has more than 42,000 student members.

The handmade soap is made on campus at dedicated workshops

Natalie Chabot, a third-year natural sciences student and project leader for Enactus UEA, said: "We have been able to tackle this local issue using fun, engaging workshops that bring together the local community.

"Our plans for the future are to continue this important work in the East Anglia region and reach out to more charities in the area, to widen our impact and help even more people facing hygiene poverty."

Conrad Yip, a second-year business management student and vice president of Enactus UEA, added: "I am incredibly proud of our achievements this year and I can't wait to see the long-lasting impact this project will have.

"This starts with the projection to provide our beneficiaries with an estimated 500 hygiene kits by 2025."