The outstanding work of Kenilworth locals Ciara and Seanna Hamill over the course of the pandemic has been recognised at a special event bringing together the UK's business community. And at 17 and 19 years old respectively, they are the youngest recipients in the UK.

The Roll of Honour was announced at the Social Enterprise Futures summit which took place on November 25 and 26, and saw nearly 1000 attendees come together to celebrate the heroes of the last year.

Ciara and Seanna have been providing essential personal protective equipment (PPE) throughout the whole of the UK and Ireland, parts of Spain, France and even as far as Peru.

From the start, the business was set up as a social enterprise with the mission to get PPE to the people who most needed it. Sales have allowed them to give away over 5,000 pieces of PPE to frontline workers, mostly in Warwickshire.

They also work closely with food banks, which have themselves seen a surge in demand as the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic became apparent.

At the Social Enterprise Futures event Ciara and Seanna were celebrated along with all the others on the Social Enterprise Roll of Honour, during a session hosted by actor, comedian and director, Chris Addison.

The Roll of Honour acknowledges those individuals and businesses which, over the course of an extremely challenging year, have demonstrated the strength, passion and resilience which is so characteristic of the social enterprise sector. Over 400 nominations were received from those within the social enterprise sector as well as supporters of the sector.

Social enterprises are businesses which trade for a social and/or environmental purpose and have been at the heart of community responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. They've been doing all they can to keep on serving the communities they are set up to support with many pivoting their business models to do so.

Commenting on being named as part of the Roll of Honour Seanna said "We are so flattered to receive this recognition, but its not the reason we began. Simply put, we started our endeavour just to protect our mother. Growth become exponential and a lot of that is thanks to the people of Kenilworth and Warwickshire for their support"

In an incredibly short period of time the business has grown from strength to strength and they are now providing both branded and white label bespoke products to clients ranging from law firms and cafes, to engineering firms, professional football clubs, the BBC and NHS.

They also distribute products free of charge to charities even designing labels for them and letting them sell them on given normal methods of fundraising have been affected by COVID restrictions.  

Recent beneficiaries have included the RNLI and Myton Hospice. If customers are social enterprises, they are automatically suppled with an additional 20% gifted product.

As charities traditional fund raising methods have fallen away, SanHanz want to work with charities to prepare an innovative solution via branded PPE both Sanitisers & Masks.

Speakers at Social Enterprise Futures included former Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who commented on the success and strength of the UK's social enterprise movement, stating that "there is no route to the future that does not have social enterprise at it's centre".

Commenting on the event and the Roll of Honour, Peter Holbrook CBE, Chief Executive of Social Enterprise UK said "The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed and exacerbated the deep inequalities within society.

"When the pandemic passes, we need to seriously rethink how the economy works and the role of business within it. To truly build back better we need a real step change in the uptake and adoption of social enterprise models, which show that successful businesses can put people and the planet first."