Making a Difference: BWS Women's Forum Hosts Cloth Donation Drive on Women's Day

Little feet racing towards us, sparkling eyes full of glee, and wide, broad smiles and eager to make their wardrobes. These are the lingering memories from the cloth donation drive that will last for a long time. Young ones were followed by their parents who were equally anxious and glad to have a decent pair of clothes.

The BWS Women’s Forum decided to celebrate Women’s Day 2023 with a cloth donation drive with the main distribution event targeted around 1st week of March 2023.

At first, we had to locate a donation centre or partner for this campaign and we finally decided to go with PlogRaja and his Robin Hood Army an NGO serving the urban poor living in the nearby slums of Brookfield/Whitefield.

The drive targeted once-worn clothes which were in a good condition and donors were to make them presentable as well. These then were to be collected from various areas in Bangalore. Though the project took some time to gather steam, some of the executive team members took initiative and completed the collection. Approximately 20 members from 7 areas donated clothes.

These were then carefully sorted and organized by the women’s forum members. The collection was pretty fantastic and many of the saris looked almost straight out of the store.

The distribution day of 26th March arrived and over 15 BWS Women’s forum members were all ready on time for the drive. 250 pairs of clothes were distributed to almost 100 families by the enthusiastic members in 3 locations in underprivileged clusters in Bangalore East, Brookfield and surrounding areas. We never expected that these clothes would be so much needed and in demand by the resident, many of them who were either physical labourers or maids or helpers etc. We were indeed privileged compared to them and blessed by more material gains.

We returned with a deep feeling of satisfaction and humility which only giving brings. We must now take it to the next level and include a few accessories like school bags and work bags too. But the most important learning was how one section of society was so glad to just have the necessities where we with a lot more still find our happiness out of reach!