How to host a collection drive

Meet volunteers in Chennai who have thrown open their homes for NGO Goonj to take up relief work for families affected by Cyclone Fengal

Just before Christmas when homes were getting decked up with colourful lights and cribs, Mangala Chandran’s home at Sriram Nagar West Street in Alwarpet was getting ready to accommodate old but useful stuff.

She was receiving cartons and bags of gently used clothes, dry ration, stationery and other usable items — the entrance of her house could have been mistaken for a godown.

This drive for NGO Goonj that Mangala initiated racked up a decent collection. This old stuff could have ended up in landfill, but now they are being diverted them to families that lost much due to Cyclone Fengal.

“Mangala is regular in conducting such collection drives, sometimes it is held once in three to four months, opening up her house for people to drop in items that could touch somebody else’s lives,” says her neighbour L. Hariharan, who has been actively volunteering for Goonj for more than 11 years now.

Until a year ago, his home was the drop-off point for people in and around Alwarpet to donate reusable items. The donated items would then be transported to Goonj’s main centre in Kovilambakkam.

During the Christmas week last year, at Karpagam Avenue in RA Puram, The Little Caterpillar, a play school, also assumed the responsibility of conducting a collection drive for people affected by the cyclone. The school also played host to the Goonj team who interacted with visitors at the centre and had a stall selling upcycled items.

While many residents have been throwing open a section of their house to stock items for those affected by Cyclone Fengal and other natural calamities, NGOs working on the ground say they still need more helping hands.