Our New Charity Partnership – Harry’s HAT
I’m thrilled to announce the launch of our new charity partnership with Harry’s HAT. The charity’s mission is to ‘make life better for children with Hydrocephalus’ (commonly known as ‘water on the brain’) through Awareness, Research and Support. It was set up in April 2019 after Caroline and Matt’s baby Harry was born with hydrocephalus and they discovered at first hand the lack of awareness of the condition even amongst some healthcare professionals.
What Harry’s HAT does
Hydrocephalus is relatively common, affecting 1 in every 1000 children in the UK. It is the most common reason for brain surgery in children. One of the important things the charity does is to provide the funds for nurses and frontline workers to attend training courses so that they’re better equipped to deal with the condition and so are more likely to recognise and respond to the early warning signs or subsequent serious ‘red-flag’ issues.
Another essential part of the charity’s work is to provide signposting support to other families in a similar situation and to provide funding for research. You can find out more about the charity and its work by visiting the Harry’s HAT website.
Harry, now 3, is a fantastic, resilient little boy, who’s currently following in Sir Tom Moore’s footsteps by planning to peddle 100 laps of his front drive as part of the Captain Tom 100 Challenge. Between 30th April-3rd May he’ll be peddling away on his balance bike, wearing his special helmet, to raise money for Harry’s HAT. If you’d like to encourage him on his way you can donate through Harry’s fundraising page.
Our Pledge
We’ve always wanted LittleLeaf to have a charitable aspect to the business, since setting up 4 years ago. In the past, we’ve supported a wide variety of charities, including Cancer Research, St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital, local schools, and to Refuge last year during the first lockdown when there was a huge spike in domestic violence recorded. Now we want to do more and establish a charitable commitment with a series of initiatives, whereby some of what you the customer spend with us will be donated directly to a particular charity, the first being the wonderful Harry’s HAT.
With the COVID-19 pandemic and everything shutting down, it’s been even harder for charities to fundraise through all their usual activities, so we want to do our little bit to help.
Hankies for Harry’s HAT
So from now until the end of August, for every pack of handkerchiefs we sell we’ll donate £1 to Harry’s HAT. Each pack contains 3 soft organic cotton hankies, 100% GOTS and Soil Association certified and made in a solar-powered Fair Trade factory – so kinder on your nose and the planet! We currently have 4 original designs – Bicycles, Leaves, Campervans and Spots – with each fabric wallet containing 3 in the same print but in 3 different colours.
The organic cotton wallet keeps them clean and handy in a bag, making them a good eco alternative to single-use tissues. Remember how your Mum, Dad, Gran or Grandad always used to have a lovely soft hankie in their pocket to mop up spills and blow your nose? Sometimes the old ideas are the best, just like paper bags in grocery stores! In their fabric wallet, our hanky packs also make a lovely affordable gift, and come wrapped in a cardboard band which states their eco and ethical credentials.
…and Muslins too
As I first came across Harry and his mum when she bought some of our muslins for him as a baby, it’s only fitting that we extend this donation pledge to our muslins too. So we’ll also donate £1 to Harry’s HAT for every muslin sold between now and the end of August. We currently have 12 incredibly soft organic cotton muslin designs, with our own original prints, suitable for girls and boys – this is where you can find them.
These baby essentials measure a generous 65x65cm, wash beautifully and have had fantastic reviews from our customers. We’ve even heard they’ve been used as pretty tablecloths and scarves, and for sieving oat milk!
Of course, as with everything LittleLeaf, you can be sure that they have been made to the very highest ethical and organic standards. With absolutely no harsh chemicals used in their growing or manufacturing, they are the kindest thing to put next to a baby’s delicate skin and make a fab new baby gift. Plus, by buying them you’ll be giving to a very worthwhile cause too!
Always Choose GOTS Certified Organic Cotton
When it comes to organic provenance, you can’t get better than GOTS certification. Not only does it ensure that everything has been grown and made to the highest organic specifications, with care for the environment, but it also upholds the highest social criteria. This means you can rest assured that your products have been made with good working conditions, fair pay, holiday entitlement, the right to form unions and, of course, absolutely no child labour. Every step in the chain is regularly inspected by independent certification bodies, to ensure that these standards are maintained. In the UK these standards are administered by the Soil Association, who certify LittleLeaf.
If you’d like to learn more about GOTS, here’s a link to the GOTS website.