The dress bank initiative of the Kudumbasree is set to spread its wings across the State and outside.
The dress bank was launched as an innovative project a few years ago, whereby volunteers would collect new clothes from various organisations and individuals and hand them over to needy families in the city, especially during festive occasions. However, it had not taken off as expected.
The Kudumbasree Project Office of the Kozhikode Corporation is now on a mission to revive the dress bank by including used clothes. “Residents’ associations in the city collected used clothes that they did not need any more and handed those over to the dress bank. We, in turn, gave the clothes to poor people locally, and sent it across to other States. Recently, we have also started supplying it to charity shops,” said M.V. Ramsy Ismail, Kudumbasree Project Officer (in-charge) of the Corporation.
The challenge
The challenge is to ensure that the clothes are in good condition.
“We had asked people who supplied it to wash and iron the clothes before handing them over. In the future, we plan to categorise the clothes properly,” Mr. Ismail said.
It was only a few days ago that the dress bank sent around 2,500 pairs of clothes to a charity shop at the medical college.
“The concept of a charity shop is that they sell hand-me-downs for a price and members of the public can buy them. The fund thus raised is used to aid cancer patients,” Mr. Ismail said. The dress bank has plans to open its own charity shop soon.
Another scheme on the anvil is to ensure that no person in the city lacks proper clothes. The scheme will provide free clothes to the homeless.
