Wednesday, December 25, 2013

How a small donation drive made a joyous Christmas

It was not a big deal until the kids called me over phone today and sang a Christmas Carol and wished me “Merry Christmas and Happy New Year”.  I realized how a small action of donating old clothes to an orphanage made a big difference to them.  


I had a bag full of unwanted clothes that was taking up space in my wardrobe. Most of the NGOs had donation drop-off centers which were quite far from my home and the donation was too little to request for door pick-up. When I checked with my apartment residents, many volunteered for donation. So I started my search for a NGO that will come to our apartment for collection. To my surprise, all the big famous charitable organizations that come in Google search due to their ‘good marketing funding’ were reluctant to facilitate donation drive at our venue and some didn't even respond. Then I found a request for help in one of the online yellow pages by a small orphanage and when approached, they were very happy to accept our contribution.


I passed on the information to all the residents through our apartment online forum and by putting up posters on notice boards about the donation drive being organized.

On the planned event day, I was overwhelmed to see the collection box overflowing with goodwill gesture. I had promised one medium sized box of clothes to the orphanage and when they came to collect, they were amazed to see their goods auto rickshaw completely filled with material donations that included clothes, blankets, toys, school stationery, etc. 

Seeing the success and positive vibes of the charity event, I wondered why each apartment complex or gated community couldn't adopt one such organization and conduct small donation drives once a year. This could be a great help for those needy people. But when the children contacted me to convey their Xmas and New Year wishes today, I really want this small initiative implemented at all gated communities and apartment complexes. The community living is becoming so popular in India that the resident associations can easily implement community relations measures. Even a small scale event can help in a big way and create a good impact.

My recommendation would be to approach small charity foundations and orphanages that cannot afford marketing initiatives to advertise for support. Also do take care that your contributions can be reused by someone and do not dump your old ragged stuff. It is worth mentioning to be aware of fake establishments that collect old clothes and find their way into the seconds market.

Hope my experience will cause a ripple effect and I can see many more such noble initiatives being adopted by others.


                                                     -Chalked by Rashmi Sreedharan



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