For the last few months, life as we know it has changed for everyone. Other than abiding by the lockdown guidelines, as a family and a business we have found ourselves feeling helpless in not being able to help people in more ways during this challenging and difficult time. So, we have decided to team up with the very special charity, Little Village. We will be donating 15% of the sales from two exclusive embroidered Ivy t-shirts to this incredible charity.
Little Village is a London based charity, acting like a foodbank, but for clothes, toys and equipment for babies and children up to the age of five, which they gift on to local families who are dealing with really challenging circumstances - homelessness, unemployment, low wages and domestic violence.
Their mission is to build small, warm communities of families who support one another with dignity and love, when times are tough. They build solidarity and share resources, and they understand how much parents want to help other parents. As a mother of 2 who knows how dramatically life changes the minute you have children, and how challenging it can be even when you have all of the resources and essentials the child needs, this message and the work that they do at Little Village strongly resonates with me.
Little Village also raise awareness about the need to tackle child poverty, as something that should not need to exist, and we want to help with their goal by sharing these facts. A staggering 1 in 3 pre-school children are now living in poverty. 95 thousand children in London are living in persistent poverty and 4.2 million children are living this way in the UK overall. 72% of these are from working households. It is these families who are going to be hardest hit by the Coronavirus pandemic, and the children involved are likely to be profoundly affected socially, emotionally and financially. During the pandemic, Little Village has seen a 66% rise in demand for its services between mid-March and mid-April.
Sophia Parker, Chief Executive and Founder of Little Village has said “children living in poverty have been subjected to a broken system for a long time. We’re facing unprecedented demand from families needing our help. Families who were already on the edge of coping before the pandemic are now struggling with the costs of essentials. Lockdown in cramped, low quality housing makes everyday life so much harder. We are also deeply concerned about the economic crisis that is likely to follow this public health crisis. Unless urgent action is taken, we think we will see a sharp increase in inequality between children trapped in poverty and their better off peers. As we know, such gaps risk affecting future life chances as well as blighting childhoods, and that is to the detriment of us all.”
Donations to Little Village will help them with distributing emergency bundles of the essentials they need – nappies, wipes and hygiene products to struggling families. As little as £5 could pay for a jumbo pack of nappies.
Offering a gift from one family to another, their dream is that no child in the capital grows up without essential items for daily life. They promote sustainable living and make it as easy as possible for families to help each other.
For the design of the exclusive t-shirts from which we will be donating 15% of each sale, we have worked with the very talented Elly aka @foxcubstudio who has beautifully drawn 2 illustrations for us.
For the first design, Elly has taken my inspiration of the iconic British bluebell as her starting point and created a stunning interpretation that we hope you love as much as we do.
We have always enjoyed our family walks in the woods, and during lockdown we are there almost daily. These walks have taken on a new meaning to us and as a family of 4 we have all appreciated the quality time together, the open space and nature everywhere you turn. For the hour that we are there, the kids are energised, happy, exploring, discovering, learning and most importantly care free. They forget for a while about missing their family and friends and are totally content in their surroundings, they have each other and the freedom to roam.
From the beginning of April, the bluebells slowly but surely took over the landscape like a sea of blue. They have always been a favourite of mine, and they will now without a doubt, forever remind me of this moment in time, when life changed.
The bluebell represents a meaning of gratitude and everlasting love, both of which I am certain we are all feeling and experiencing in many different ways right now.
For our second design, Elly has created an uplifting quote to remind us that things won’t be like this forever.
During lockdown time has stood still and lost all meaning. There is one thing I’ve been saying to myself on repeat for the last 10 weeks, whilst taking a deep breath and that’s to take “One day at a time”. It’s all we can do to keep calm and positive when so much is out of our control.
We hope you love these designs as much as we do. They are available to buy now, and remember that we send all UK orders free of charge as standard.
Stay Safe,
Sally x
To learn more about Little Village you can watch a short video about them here.
If you would like to donate to Little Village directly, you can do so at their Just Giving page, and you can follow them on Instagram @LittleVillageHQ
