Our long-term friend Your Smalls Appeal has dropped by with more much-needed donations

Your Smalls Appeal founder Diana Esho visited our home in London Road to drop off the donated items.

"Your Smalls always seem to come along at the right time - just when we are starting to run out of the essentials the women need."

Avril Lewis, crisis support manager at the New Futures Project sums up the importance of our relationship with Leicestershire-based organisation, Your Smalls Appeal.

Your Smalls – you can visit their website here - has been providing bras, pants, sanitary pads and other essentials to women and girls around the world, particularly those in developing countries, since 2016.

However, founder Diana Esho broadened the appeal's focus to vulnerable and impoverished women in the UK too during the Covid crisis.

Now, Diana regularly drops by with stacks of everyday essentials the women we see here are crying out for.

Earlier this month, Diana arrived at our home in London Road to deliver bags and boxes of everyday essentials - from bras, pants and other items of clothing, to sanitary and personal hygiene products.

Avril Lewis, crisis support manager at the New Futures Project, said: "Your Smalls donations are always welcome.

"They have been supporting us for so long now, we feel we can rely on them. We know they will be there for us.

"Everything they bring us is always so carefully chosen.

"A lot of the women need small size clothing, 6, 8 and 10, and Your Smalls know that and always bring us the things the women will be able to wear, especially underwear.

Drop-in manager Louise Cook sorting through some of the items donated by Your Smalls.

"A lot of these products are essentials, but they are expensive. The women would not necessarily buy them for themselves even if they had the money.

"Your Smalls always seem to come along at the right time - just when we are starting to run out of the essentials the women need."

Your Smalls Appeal receives donations from a wide range of sources, such as “individual ladies, women connected to local business, networking groups, churches, girls and mums at various schools and colleges, not only in the UK but from across the globe.”

We asked some of the women who visit our drop-in what makes the place so special.

Zoe said: "I've been coming to the New Futures Project for years because it helps vulnerable women, women who have been abandoned.

"Coming here gives us peace of mind for a time.

"Being able to get hot food is important for the women who come here, and I've got a lot of clothes from the project too in the past.

"I love everything about the people here."

Apart from clothing, here's a rough guide to the kind of donations we need regularly:

• Deodorant (roll-on)

• Shower gel

• Dry shampoo

• Shampoo

• Conditioner

• Antibacterial hand gel

• Water wipes

• Feminine wipes

• Tampons

• Sanitary towels

• Toothpaste

• Toothbrush

• Body cream

• Breakfast bars

If you would like to drop off a donation, call us on 0116 2510803 to arrange a day and time. We are open Monday to Thursday.

We are in London Road, just a short distance up the road from Leicester railway station and parking is available nearby.

We may be able to collect too. Again, please call us for a chat.

The New Futures Project offers a comprehensive welfare and counselling service for women and young people dealing with sexual abuse or exploitation, domestic violence, trafficking, poverty and debt, substance use or mental ill-health.

Call us on 0116 251 0803 or send us a message at: info@new-futures.org.uk

You can find us at 71 London Road, Leicester, LE2 0PE.