By Katherine Kim

United Methodist Women from Korean UMC of Santa Clara Valley assemble hygiene kits for UMCOR relief and education programs.

If you were in a disaster, had to suddenly leave your home without any personal belongings, and stores were not open for business, how would you take care of your basic hygiene needs?

The United Methodist Committee on Relief has developed standard hygiene kits, which provide basic necessities to people who have been forced to leave their homes because of human conflict or natural disaster.  Hygiene kits are also used as learning tools in personal hygiene, literacy, nutrition, and cooking classes. 

The UMW group of Korean UMC of Santa Clara Valley assembled 100 UMCOR hygiene kits, and sent the kits to the UMCOR Sager Brown Depot in Baldwin, Louisiana in September, 2021.   After the first shipment was sent to UMCOR, a group of Korean United Methodist Church women donated enough money to make another 100 hygiene kits, which we sent to the UMCOR Depot later that same month.

We were all very happy to do the work to help those who need the hygiene kits, and it was a good chance to get together during this time of Covid.

The contents of UMCOR Hygiene Kits are:

• One hand towel 
• One washcloth
• One comb
• One toenail or fingernail clipper
• Bath-size soap (3 oz. bar or larger)
• One adult tooth brush
• 10 adhesive bandages
• One one-gallon size resealable bag

We also include a check for the total amount of hygiene kits times $2 per kit, for the cost of tooth paste and shipping to Sager Brown.

More information about UMCOR Hygiene Kits can be found at https://umcmission.org/umcor-hygiene-kit/.