Street Store aka Cloth Drive
I am here to present the progress of our team’s Mega Project which is about donating warm clothes to unprivileged people. The poor are suffering from this harsh winter season and they don’t have enough access to warm clothes. On the other hand, people are not donating their clothes in the right hands or to the people who are actually deserving. So we are here to help them out and will provide the donations into the right hands by actually going in person and finding out the right locations.
Progress
The progress of our Mega Project so far is that:
- We arranged more than 4 meetings for our mega project.
- The clothes collection process is 100% completed and we have collected clothes on an individual basis.
- We contacted two foundations in this regard.
We got approval from one organization and one of our group mates went to that foundation for donating warm clothes. They welcomed him warmly and were very friendly. They appreciated him and the work we’re doing and they also issued a certificate of appreciation. That feeling was very satisfying even though we were not there but the way he told us that how they appreciated our crew and how they welcomed him, that was really motivating.
- We preprocessed 100% clothes and now they are ready to deliver.
- Made 70% progress in searching for the needy.
Waiting for approval from the other organization, we all will go there and will do the rest of the donation. We have also targeted another location where there are potentially deserving people. We are hoping to complete our winter cloth drive by the third week of Feb.
Challenges and Solutions
There are some potential challenges regarding our Mega Project which are explained as below:
Problem:
We were facing problems searching for a place to camp out. But it’s a hard and time taking task and reaching out to the people by setting up only one camp is not that effective.
Solution:
That’s why we decided to reach out to the people in person.
Problem:
Convincing people for clothes.
Solutions:
As it’s very difficult to convince people to donate, we are trying to convince them by giving them information about Amal and make them understand that we will provide clothes directly to the needy.
Change in approach
The way we planned to carry the project didn’t happen. So we have to make a slight change in plans. Our work does not stop at any point of its journey but yes speed of the car may increase or decrease. The slightest changes in our approach were made by keeping in mind the suitability of our team members so as a team we can give maximum output.
Due to some time issues and exams, we plan not to set a store or camp because all team members do not live in Lahore and some were planning to come to Lahore two days before but because of exams we have to drop this plan for the first week but in the upcoming week we will set a camp as planned before. So for now, we plan to give clothes directly to needy people in that particular area which we decided. These little bit changes were made so we can get maximum output during our first week.
Impact
As I mentioned in the first blog that according to the Ministry of Planning and Development nearly 29.5 % of people are living below the poverty line which translates to 55 million people. So according to that, the impact would be:
- This project will provide access to warm clothes to the unprivileged people, and
- It will also be environmentally feasible.
Sustainability
How we are planning to carry out this project in the future is that we will carry out the cloth drive on special occasions throughout the year. We will team up on events and will target different locations. We will go there in person and will distribute clothes.
