Help make clothing a matter of concern

Clearing my wardrobe on the weekend, I found a dress which I had completely forgotten about. Why did I still keep it? Because it was so beautiful! Will I ever use it? Not at least in the next few months!

I checked how many more clothes I had which I hadn’t been using in the last couple months and was surprised to find a lot. I put all of them in a bag and donated them to a local charity which made me feel really good.

I then wondered why I was feeling so good. Was it because I thought I did a righteous act of giving something to charity or was it because my wardrobe looked more spacious and organized now? May be a bit of both, but I now knew that it wasn’t just me helping the charity; the charity was helping me too, by giving me, ease of access to my own possessions.

The world today is divided into two kinds of people. People who have excess of anything and people who are in complete lack of the same thing. This gap is very wide in one of the most important essentials of human life. Clothing!

While one section of the society have their closets overflowing with garments from all top brands in the fashion market, another section of the society struggles to put that last possible stitch, on the single garment they have, in an attempt to use it for a few more days.

While people in one part of the world wear their outfits to flaunt their status symbol, in another part of the world, people cover themselves with just a few scraps, to protect their dignity.

While millions of people go shopping to buy a new jacket, just because they are bored of wearing the same old stuff, the remaining millions die in winter because of insufficient clothing to keep warm.

Does all this mean that we live in guilt because some of us cannot afford what we can and stop buying stuff? Of course not! Buying any new stuff brings its own air of delight into our homes and by buying new stuff we are also helping the economy. But a real balance can only be achieved when we buy consciously, let go off things we no longer use and pass them on with love, to people who need it.

This month I would like to donate 2000 INR to the charity “Goonj”. This is a charity in India which strives to create a balance between the surplus and the deficient. In one part of the world, it clothes people and gives them a life of self-respect and in another part of the world; it creates space and peace of mind for people by removing the clutter from their homes. Started in 1998 with only 67 personal clothes, GOONJ is channelizing over 70,000 kg of material every month. The charity not only transfers the material it receives to the right people but also uses them as a resource in its very own innovative programs like Cloth for work, School to School campaigns and Recycling them into new products

Link to the charity website

http://goonj.org/

Link to the online donation links
http://www.giveindia.org/iGive-goonjcharity
http://goonj.org/?page_id=838