SOMETHING ABOUT GOONJ!
Everbody wants to contribute to the society in need as much
as they can and donating Money is not the only way to do that. The easiest way
we find to contribute is by giving away our old and used clothes and things to
the people in need. But do we ever give a second thought about the clothes
provided by us are even useful to the people or not? We just
mindlessly give away all the old clothes we find at our place but are those
clothes even useable?
Here is where GOONJ comes in picture. Anshu Gupta founded
this organisation in 1998 after leaving a well paying corporate. He made this huge selfless move
because he believed in his cause. And the cause was that rich or poor everybody
deserves the right of proper clothing!
The concept of GOONJ is optimum utilization of resources. No
matter how good our intentions are to help people, donated clothes always end
being misutilized. He observed that people in need were not getting the
required clothes and people were so thoughtless that they were even donating
torn clothes or even used underwears!
What GOONJ does is take the old donated clothes in wash and
clean it. Even REPAIR the clothes if needed. And then send it where it is
required. Like warm clothes are required in the northern the most, it will be useless
if sent anywhere else. Donated Jeans for women are useless in village so only
sarees are sent for tribal women.
In short it sorts clothes as per the regional requirement and
then sends the clothes to the affected area. GOONJ sorts approximately 3000
tons of clothes annually now!
GOONJ also makes sanitary napkins out of unused clothes and
provide it in tribal areas. They came across an incident where a tribal women
died of septic while using an old piece of unhygienic colth. Tribal women are
devoid of even basic need of sanitary napkins and GOONJ helps these women
without voice.
Goonj also provides employment to rural people by employing
them in making mattress and other things out of not useable clothes.
A simple thought yet such a huge difference! Just sorting
clothes makes such a huge impact. The clothes reach where they are required the
most and there is no wastage of any resources!
A small initiative started by Anshu and his wife to provide
the required clothes to poor and homeless has now become a huge organization reaching
across more than 20 states! And how wonderful is that!
I came across this organisation while reading a book and found this an excellent, thoughtful organization worth sharing with everyone.
If you wish to know more or be a part of it you can always
vist the site : www.goonj.org
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