Recycling hygiene products for the underprivileged

Dear Difteur-ses,

Our association partner Forum Réfugiés welcomed us to the center d'Hébergement d'Urgence des Demandeurs d'Asile (HUDA) in Lyon 8 📍

A rich and intense meeting!

We had the opportunity to ask all our questions (and there were many) about how asylum applications work and the reception of these people who arrive on the territory without housing, without landmarks, often without their loved ones.

🏢 The Lyon 8 HUDA has 175 places.

☂️ It welcomes isolated families under the Dublin regulation.

📋 They are accompanied on an administrative level, notably for their asylum application.

For several years, we have regularly supplied hygiene kits to this association, which are notably distributed to beneficiaries on their arrival at the accommodation centers.

After listening carefully, visiting the premises and meeting some of the locals (including a little girl, who was our best guide through the center's corridors), we left with a new awareness of the reality of this public...

And with that, a tenfold desire to push our actions even further!

Thanks again to the Forum Réfugiés team 💙

Dear difteur-ses,

On March 14 at the Orange Vélodrome stadium in Marseille, Lucas and Lucie from UNISOAP were on hand to represent the association, which had been chosen by Agefiph as the winner of one of the prix Activateur de Progrès 💪

For us, it was already an honor to have been selected for our collaboration with the ESATs of ALGED, where our soap recycling center is located 🧼 But the surprise was even greater when we received the votes for the public prize! So it was not one, but two cups that we took home 😉

These awards represent an achievement for us, a recognition of the social pillar that has been an integral part of our initiative since our launch. We are delighted to be able to create 35 jobs for people with disabilities with three ESATs in the Lyon region ♿️

Thanks again to Agefiph and especially to you who make this possible!

Dear difteurs,

Every other Thursday, the volunteer collective of Générations Entraide mobilizes in Lyon 8 to distribute food parcels, offer hot meals, chat over coffee... And recently, donating soaps! 🧼

For this association, access to hygiene is an integral part of their gifts for the most disadvantaged. This also includes the provision of a hairdresser!

The volunteers welcomed us for the duration of a distribution, with plenty of smiles and good humor. Since our partner associations are the ones on the ground every day, it's always very important for us to participate regularly in distributions. It's an opportunity to hand over our soaps to the beneficiaries, to meet them and, above all, to get a better idea of their reality.

A difficult reality, which puts our feet back on the ground. Our congratulations and thanks to Générations Entraide, who showed us that even in the freezing cold, we all have the power, for a few hours, to warm hearts 💙

The year 2024 ends on a high note 🫧

This summer, the UNISOAP team experienced a special event: the completion of our hygiene product inventory at our partner ESAT!
👉 The result: 1,556 boxes for People and Planet 🌍
Because today, UNISOAP is much more than a soap recycling business. We want to give everyone access to hygiene, and that also means recovering unsold products from hygiene and cosmetics brands. 🪥
We structure this activity to give our beneficiaries hygiene kits, but also bulk products. This enables us to meet their needs even better! 🤝
This team inventory has enabled us to realize the scale of our actions and the involvement of our partners: thousands of products saved from the garbage can, participating in the common good. 💙
We were assisted in this mission by members of Boho Green Make-up, one of our committed partners.

A huge thank you to them, and to all the companies who bring their bubble to the building thanks to their product donations and to our partner associations who act on the ground. 👏

Together, we can go even further! ♻️

Did you know?The date 28/05 wasn't chosen at random! 28 represents the average number of days in a menstrual cycle and 5 that of the duration of menstruation.
Women are among the audiences UNISOAP is prioritizing to help in 2024! 🫶
For this, we can rely on the support of our partner associations, who distribute our soaps, hygiene products and kits to their beneficiaries.
This is the case of Féminité Sans Abri, which distributes hygiene and beauty products to combat the precariousness of women. This week, a hundred kits will be donated to the Permanence d'Accès aux Soins de l'Hôpital Saint Joseph Saint Luc in Lyon thanks to our joint action! 🧼
Let's never forget that hygiene is a right, a necessity. And menstrual hygiene products are among the most difficult to collect... and the most important for women in need.
As Laëtitia, a volunteer in charge of the Lyon area, so aptly put it, and we thank her wholeheartedly for her testimony: "L'union fait la force!" 🤝 So, if you'd like to add your bubble to the edifice with donations of menstrual hygiene products, contact us 💌
Together, we can make an even greater impact for those in need... 💙

For some time now, we've been keen to increase our impact, to meet the need for access to hygiene that extends, unfortunately, far beyond our French borders...
To give you an idea:
🇫🇷 In France, 3 million people have no access to basic hygiene products.
🌍 Worldwide, an estimated 2.3 billion people lack the infrastructure to wash their hands with soap and water.
➡️ With this in mind, UNISOAP is launching its first branch abroad: UNISOAP UAE, in the United Arab Emirates 🇦🇪
In this country, where tourism infrastructure is on a massive scale, the resources that could be provided by hotels are up to the task! 🧼
To remain in a responsible and reasoned logic, the project is supported locally by a local player: the social enterprise Goumbook, with whom we've been working for several months now 🤝 With this in mind, the entire process is being implemented locally: collection, recycling and distribution 😉
Further proof that, when we join forces, we can act on a grand scale! 

Together, we can have even more impact for People and for the Planet 🚀 🍃 

In October, UNISOAP launched its ambassador community, to great fanfare!
When the APICIL Group, one of our long-standing partners, offered us one of their advertising spaces on France TV replays, we saw a great opportunity to highlight our actions on a large scale 📽
No need for long speeches, just watch this video to understand UNISOAP's ecological, social and solidarity-based project!

Partner, donor and now ambassador: everyone can act at their own level to 

And help us to:

📣 Captains and future captains, you too can support us and join our community of ambassadors!
Together, we can have even more impact 🤝

"I'm going to take a shower!" 🚿

You have to get out in the field to really understand how commonplace this phrase is for those without access to hygiene.

 

The UNISOAP team spent an afternoon following the Vroom Shower. This is the camper van that Béchir Dridi has transformed into a mobile shower, and which provides over 300 showers a month for homeless people in Lyon.

 

Beyond simple showers, the Vroom Shower offers a convivial moment with beneficiaries. By creating a bond with them, Béchir gives them back access to hygiene, health, but also and above all, self-esteem.

We are proud to contribute to the actions of our partner associations and to have seen first-hand the positive impact of the hygiene products we distribute (UNISOAP recycled soaps and hygiene kits).

Together, we can go even further 🌍 🧼

At UNISOAP, we're committed to transforming waste from the hospitality sector into resources for the underprivileged.
Beyond recycled soaps, we're now makinghygiene kits to cover ever more needs. The kits are thus made up of a UNISOAP soap and products collected from cosmetics brands and manufacturers (if you know of a brand that knows... that would like to donate products 😉).
For their manufacture, it's quite natural that we chose to work with a second ALGED structure: ESAT Robert Lafon.
Through their sewing workshop, we're carrying out one more ecological action and a great partnership! 🍃
We explain:

➡️ The pouch you see in the photo comes from the recycling of sheets and comforter covers from Blanchisserie Morellon, a major player in linen rental and care since 1890.
They discard 1 cart of linen per week (clean linen damaged, with holes, torn, etc..., from hotels and healthcare facilities).

We recover and recycle this linen to make pouches that house hygiene kits, destined for our partner charities. 🤝

All this wouldn't be possible without your support!

Together, we can have even more impact 🌍

Discover Unisoap's video greetings.