You’re probably familiar with the popular YouTube tag, What’s in my Bag, and not one to miss out on a bandwagon to hurl myself onto I thought I’d follow suit and upload my own twist on the tag.

I recently read on The London Ladybird Blog about an amazing initiative that’s gone viral around the world to lend a hand to homeless women at Christmas time.

After delving a little deeper I found a lovely thing happening close to where I live that I could get involved in.  Bags of Kindness is a local level take on the wider Rucksack Project encouraging friends to team up and make up rucksacks that, right now, are being distributed to homeless women throughout London in time for Christmas.

Each bag is filled with practical items which aim to give women in need warmth and some comfort at what can be a very difficult time of year to be on the streets.

My friend Andrea and I put our bag together and this is what went in:

A note on sanitary items:  unlike condoms which are freely distributed among the homeless, women have to pay for sanitary products when they have their period.  It seems outrageous that a basic female monthly necessity is seen as a luxury so I’m sure these will come in very useful.

We also popped in some body lotion, cleansing wipes and lip balms to help protect our lady’s skin from the elements – I was too late to take a picture of these items but you get the gist!

The deadline for rucksacks in the London area has now passed BUT there’s nothing stopping you starting your own rucksack project by creating a Facebook event in your area.

I’m so happy I came across this project in time for Christmas.  It’s part of a wider Kindness Advent encouraging participants to carry out daily acts of kindness towards others over the festive period.  It’s such a lovely thing to do and there’s nothing stopping us carrying it on throughout the rest of the year.

See you next time,

L X