You don't discard, but donate, your worn-out clothes in this bank

It was the toothy grin of a young recipient that sparked off the idea of a systematised and professional way of going about doing cloth charity in Nalini Gangadharan, executive director, Dr Reddy’s Foundation for Human and Social Development. Thus was born Clothes Bank—a Unicef-funded voluntary body attached to Dr Reddy’s Foundation. Starting off in May 2000 with clothes and other knick-knacks given by Nalini’s friends and relatives, today the Bank receives and distributes clothes in Chennai, Bangalore and Pune. The three-room apartment that houses the Bank is a virtual sea of clothes. At any point of time, it has about 15 tonnes of clothes, ranging from sarees, trousers, shirts, frocks, jeans to designer ghagra cholis. "In the first 15 days after we started, we were inundated with more than 15,000 kg of clothes," says Nalini. One kilo of clothes is about 15 pieces of children’s clothes, or say three salwaar kameez sets.

As the concept spread through word of mouth, friends and relatives who took up spring-cleaning at home started depositing clothes with the Bank. More phone calls, faxes and e-mails followed and the Bank only grew stronger. Organisations like Foodworld and Andhra Bank offered to become pick-up points for the clothes. The concept of such a bank appealed to companies like tnt India Limited, an express delivery service that now airlifts the clothes for free. Surf Excel came forward to supply free detergent, and Whirlpool gave 10 washing machines.

Chetana Sukumar, the person in charge of Clothes Bank, explains the process: "Once the clothes are picked up, they are graded. All those items which are not redeemable, and that’s only about 10 per cent of all the deposited clothes, are discarded. The rest are classified in different categories, like children’s clothing, sarees, woollens etc. After the initial wash, if need be, they are mended, darned, altered and even pressed. We also make sure that a tag with the name of the individual donor is attached with each clothe-item. We send these clothes to organisations after they send requisition letters specifying the number and the kind of clothes they are in need of. We ensure that the recipient gets what he or she wants. Bringing a smile on those faces is of immense importance to us."

A unique concept, the bank also has volunteers to help the domestic helps and tailors in collection, grading and distribution of the clothes. But are there people generous enough to donate good clothes? Chetana thinks there are. Says she: "Believe it or not, there are times where we get spanking new designer clothes as charity. Even my wardrobe doesn’t have such clothes and which are in such good condition."

Surprisingly, there are no takers for salwaar kameez and men’s clothing. At the same time, there is a pressing demand for sarees. Unfortunately, the Bank does not get too many sarees. "Perhaps women in the cities either have stopped buying sarees or are too possessive about them and do not want to part with their collection," says Nalini with a wry smile. Right now, the Bank is in need of children’s clothing—for ages between 6 and 14. Never short of like-minded people for their contribution in terms of clothes, the bank welcomes volunteers who can chip in with an hour or two on weekends.

For details call 040-3414603 or e-mail nalinig@satyam.net.in or simply drop by with your clothes to Clothes Bank, Durganagar colony, near Geetanjali College, Punjagutta, Hyderabad.