Event Name: Clothing Donation Drive

Objective: To encourage students and residents of Symbiosis, Hyderabad campus to donate clothes and thus help someone with their actions, through the channel of Goonj.

Outcome:

A successful donation drive; Over 300 clothes got collected and were thus sent to Goonj for the appropriate use of collection.

Ikshana, ISR Club of SCMS-H, conducted its first Clothing Donation Drive from 12th November, 2022 to 17th November, 2022. This was in collaboration with Goonj, an NGO that focuses on using urban discard as a tool to alleviate the poor.

As per the elaborately planned drive’s strategy, members of Ikshana placed cartons near the main gate of every hostel in the campus. These cartons served as the collection hubs for the clothes being donated, thus creating an easy-to-access way for the willing donators.

After the given time, that is, once 17th November had come and gone, all the members of ISR club came together to bring the cartons – now brimming with clothes, boasting the sincerity of people’s pledge to be helpful when possible – to the place provided by the Management, and thus, began to check the clothes for their condition. Thereafter, these clothes were folded and put back in the cartons again. However, this time these cartons were not a collection hub, but a vessel of pride, filled with approximately 300 clothes, ready to be delivered to Goonj.

SIBM-H had conducted clothing drive in past so both drive collection were taken to Goonj. Ergo, came the next part: physically delivering these cartons to Goonj. For this part of the process, total 6 persons, including Dr. Disha Pathak from SCMS and Dr. Ridhi Rani from SIBM, two of the most incredible faculty members one could ask for, travelled together. The journey from the campus to the building of Goonj filled us with immense satisfaction. However, delivering the cartons wasn’t the only objective of this journey.

Once at Goonj, we asked them about their NGO, and how they make use of the clothes that they receive as donation, so as to become more knowledgeable about such noble acts. Goonj make different kits for people, such as family kit, disaster kit, etc., amongst many more. They give the donated clothes to the people living in rural areas, however they don’t give clothes for free – their policy is “cloth for work,” that is, if a person works, then only will they earn a cloth. For example, if there is no bridge in the village, but the villagers work together and build the bridge, then only will they get clothes.

Next, we visited their processing unit where the clothes are separated, and saw how they are prepared for being donated and for being used for kits.

Goonj also makes carry bags and other useful products with the help of the donated clothes they receive.