Despite being the 42nd most populated city in the UK, Brighton has the SECOND largest homeless population in the UK, with a 24 percent increase since last year. That statistic floored us, and as the weather drops again this crisis on our door step becomes even more apparent.

We have been thinking of ways that we can directly help whilst knowing where the money is going. As women we can't comprehend the difficulty that must come from experiencing a period without the simplest of creature comforts, let alone the daily fear that accompanies living on the streets as a woman. These are the most vulnerable among us and we need to help in little ways where we can. We feel that as a small collective this is the most direct way we can help the individuals suffering these circumstances.

The last thing we want to do is patronise any of these women as we have absolutely no idea of how difficult it must be, so we want to think about the best way we can use the raised funds. So far we would like to include a box of tampons/sanitary towels, warm socks, baby wipes, a box of cereal bars/snacks, a lip balm, a water bottle, and a hairbrush/comb. If anyone has any ideas of how we can make the most of this fundraiser then please email us at kingmobzine@gmail.com. We will also need some help packing up and handing out these packages so we will be very grateful for anyone willing to come forward and lend a hand. We are starting by aiming for £500, with this we hope to budget £10 per package and make 50.

*Disclaimer* We understand that the issue extends beyond the women living rough, and that this is a very tiny contribution to the cause, but we feel that this is the best way that we can help without spreading ourselves too thinly. It is also very obvious that women are at a certain disadvantage both physically and socially and whilst we can't provide homes we can help with sanitary wear, one box of tampons alone equates the cost of a meal. 58% of women sleeping rough had been intimidated or threatened with violence and force in the past 12 months compared to 42% of men. With this said we are aiming to buy bulk of the unisex items i.e socks, water, so we can hand packages out to the men we encounter too, but our focus is going to be providing sanitary wear to Women, which is more expensive than the other items. The more money we raise the more we will be able to reassess how we can put it to it's best use.

***We will publicly post receipts of our purchases so you know exactly where the money has gone***

UPDATE 29/10/18 -

Hi all!

Thank you firstly for the overwhelming support we've has with this campaign, we have over doubled what we set out to achieve, and with another month to go! We've continuously reassessed how to make the most of the money raised, as it has stretched beyond our original aim. We wanted to raise £500 to provide packages for women. We now have almost £1300 so I will now post our new plan:

- £500 will still go towards the packages for women, but we will also make packages for men with the other £500. We still feel strongly about the initial cause but given that we can now afford to we definitely want to help as many people as possible

- Anything over the grand mark will go towards women's items (sanitary wear, and we are also looking into how we can provide bras after speaking to a homeless woman in Brighton who struggles without, as many women apparently do)

- Infinity Foods are kindly donating 100 boxes of sanitary wear, 100 flapjacks and 100 cartons of juice. This is fantastic as it gives us more of a budget to include other things in the packages, such as hats, gloves, etc.

- The womens items outside of the packages will be split up and given to local hostels and Brighton Women's Centre. If we continue to exceed our target then we will also look into donating these to poorer schools in the area, as some of these young women are also going without. We'll continue to update you all if anything changes! Please keep donating so we can do as much as possible!

We're also putting on a gig at The Western Pub in Brighton with all proceeds going to the cause! -

https://www.facebook.com/events/248065855903349/?notif_t=plan_user_associated&notif_id=1538495693054853