Haven would like to share a gift with you from the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center-
From the Resource center:
With COVID-19 spreading into a second year, there is a heightened awareness of the need to access personal care products. Early in the Health Crisis, hygiene and protective items were difficult to find on store shelves as panic buying set in and products used for hand washing and general hygiene disappeared. Staying healthy can already be difficult when leaving an abusive situation or while in a shelter, so when these items are scarce, it makes it that much more difficult to feel safe from abuse and the virus.
“When consumers struggled to locate these products, imagine the difficulty that organizations providing shelter must have gone through. It was out of this realization that the Bathing Bundle project was born” said Lucy Simpson, NIWRC Executive Director. “We sourced production of body and face bars from a soap maker who graciously provided these items at cost to help alleviate shelter programs struggling to maintain stock of these supplies.”
The ritual of bathing is a simple way to clear the mind and cleanse the body. Providing natural, environmentally friendly, and traditional medicine in products for these routines can improve the situation for relatives who are experiencing transition out of trauma. The Bathing Bundle features handmade, vegan, natural moisturizing soaps without chemical preservatives, scented with essential oils that evoke a calming effect and have traditionally promoted healing. Each bundle includes a travel-size all-natural facial bastille bar soap and travel size moisturizing bath/shampoo essential oil bars.
The Bathing Bundles feature traditional essential oils and scents: clary and white sage, and flat cedar are incorporated into the soaps, representing familiar and authentic scents. Sage is used to prepare people for ceremonies and teachings, and for releasing what is troubling the mind and for removing negative energy. It is also used for cleansing homes and sacred items. Burning cedar provides protection, used to purify the home as well as also having many restorative medicinal uses. Cedar baths are healing. When cedar is put in the fire with tobacco, it crackles, calling the attention of the spirits to the offering that is being made. Each unique bath bundle is presented in a reusable cotton bag, as a nod to the herb bundles to promote healing and cleansing.
Stop by your office breakroom today to pick up a bath bundle to help clear your mind and destress. And as a reminder that Haven advocates are always here to help!
More info: https://www.niwrc.org/
Have a good weekend!
