Suraksha is a group aiming to spread the awareness about the cloth donation and forming collection campaign. With an aim to inspire and involve the students from different walks of life, this group which laid its roots in IIIT-Hyderabad and is now aiming to spread to many other institutes both in and around Hyderabad and outside.

Inspiration behind this initiative:

 “Goonj” is an NGO established by Anshu Gupta, an Ashoka Fellow in 1998 with an aim of addressing the very basic need of millions of people, that of clothing. This organization provides an efficient channel for collecting the surplus urban resources – the discarded but reusable clothes and distributing them to those who lack that basic commodity.

                              Goonj

                  Motivated from Goonj’s initiative of vastra-samman, a national wide awareness program cum collection campaign, few students from the 2007 batch of IIIT-Hyderabad came up with an noble idea of organizing a collection center at the institute so that the passing out batch and the others might volunteer in donating some of their clothes. The group was named Suraksha.

Challenges faced: 

                               A challenge is an opportunity to prove your ability to yourself, and others – Joe brown. 

It was the time for the team to put their thoughts into action in the process of which the team had faced hurdles in various forms. The first was a need for a permanent space where the clothes gathered overtime from the campaign could be stored. With the able guidance of Mr. Ramana, the security authority of IIIT, a dormitory was allocated for this cause. The monetary need for some expenses ( about 800 rupees)  was gladly addressed by Team Samvedana.    

The Campaign:

About 300 posters to publicize the campaign were all over the campus - at the canteen, at the research labs, at the hostels, seeking the attention and interest of the students. The campaign did not stop here; Suraksha team carried the message online through the social networking sites such as Facebook and Orkut. The campaign started off on 4th April. 

There were cartons provided at each of the hostels for the benefit of the students and these clothes were shifted to the dormitory regularly. The response was overwhelming, both from the students and from the faculty. 11 days of the continual tiring efforts of the team came to a successful closure on 15^th of April                

                                         Campaign poster: Campaign poster

Articles collected and their count:

Volunteers busy folding the collected material

The collected material from the campaign

 Material neatly packed and all set to be dispatched to Goonj

Would you like to contribute?

 If you wish to make some donation of any clothing, kindly contact us. The clothes can be handed over to us by visiting us at our institute (we do not provide the facility to pick the clothes from you as yet) or you can directly donate them at the Goonj collection center

Would you want to start a collection campaign at your workplace or residential area?                                                                              Team Suraksha will be more than happy to help you out in realizing this aim by guiding you and providing you any needed monetary assistance. All you have to do is contact us.

Wishing the team success in many such forthcoming endeavors..

“What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and world remains and is immortal” – Albert Pike