Background: Our society has greatly been entangled by problems of haves and haves not. There are fewer people(hardly 10%) having holding upon more than 90% of total resources whereas majority of them have to live on lesser than 10% of total resources. Those majorities have to struggle for food, clothes and shelter and die of starvation and poverty. A lot of people in the world are struggling for their existence. We often read on daily newspaper many terrible and heartfelt stories of people having no cloth on their Body. Majorities of the news cover the story of Nepal where many people are poor, unable to afford food, cloth and shelter. Though Nepal is under developed country on the global map, it is going to be converted as developing nation if we believe on the slogan “New Nepal”.
These days, people spend a lot of their income on cloths. They are ready to pay a large portion of their income on newly designed cloths and fabrics. Many high and medium income groups are found buying cloths as soon as they arrive in market. As a result, heap of cloths are being collected causing problem of storage and management. There are people, who do not put on the same clothes for more than once. There are people having too many cloths, causing them problem to store also they cannot throw them away. If they give such once used cloths to other people, many people having no clothes to wear would be benefitted greatly. However, in our cultural context, people desiring to donate cloths have fear that if the recipient of such cloths would feel humiliated. Such cultural psychological challenges have hindered reuse of such once used but usable cloths by the needy ones.
Then there is a question. Is there no solution of such problem? Yes there is solution. And the solution is Cloth Bank.
Cloth Bank provides a common forum to all the generous people to donate their once used cloths (but the generous people may donate new or never used cloths too). When a sufficient quantity of cloths is collected, we manages its distribution to the needy people. Giving something free of cost is really a very hard work. So there may be chance of giving away very old and tattered clothes. We also urges to people to make donation only such cloths which are in usable condition. So people must be conscious before making donation if the buttons and zips of the shirts and trousers are intact or not, if such cloths have been washed or not respecting the dignity of the recipient. We collects once used or never used cloths in different ways and they are stored in office. They are separated according to the size and types of clothes so that they can be sent to the needy place easily.
There is great problem of unemployment in Nepal and children and teenagers have to depend on the earning of their seniors. There is also the situation that a family of 5 to 10 people is being supported by the earning of a single family head. It has become nightmare to many deprived people looking for work to support their sustainable livelihood. Because of poverty and unemployment, people are not getting an opportunity to enjoy their fundamental rights to food, shelter and clothes. People are unable to manage the clothes for them and their children. Because of this reason, people have to wait Dashain or any other festival to get a new pair of the clothes. So, the Cloth Bank has become the need of the time to collect cloths from generous people desirous to make donation and distribute the same to the needy ones. Similarly, the
Cloth bank aims to become a bridge to link those people having problems to manage storage of big heaps of cloths and those having no cloth to wear even at the time of frosty winter.
We also believe that if needy people are provided with cloths donated from generous people, those needy people may use their money allocated for cloths in the education and health of their children. As a result our society would have more educated and healthy people too.
By providing forum for reuse of clothes, Cloth Bank is also extending its support towards the campaign of environmental protection. When once used cloths are used again, it is hoped that there will be reduction of cloths production. When there is reduction in cloths production, there is reduction of use of energy. Less use of energy means, less global warming and less global warming means deceleration of climate change.
The Cloth Bank can be taken as one of the means of preparedness for disaster to happen at any time. If there are natural disasters like earthquake, floods, land slide, etc., at that time, Cloth Bank may function as a store house of cloths for disaster affected people.
Do you have cloths to donate ? If yes, contact us at info@volunteeraidnepal.org , or directly visit our office.