INTRODUCTION
As part of their community service course, learners of year 11 held a clothes donation drive at Faroug-e-Subh Welfare Organisation (FESWO) in collaboration with Chadar.
It was six week long project divided into 3 phases which consisted of collection, processing, and distribution.
Collection
The collection was primarily done in Lecole. Learners prepared a presentation which was given in the morning assembly. Boxes were set up all over the campus. Students and teachers from Primary, Secondary and A-Level sections were urged to donate their gently used warm winter clothes. Learners also used social media to their advantage, posting creative stories on their Instagram to reach out to their friends and family. Funds generated from a recently held bake sale were used to buy winter clothes from Sunday Bazar.
The target of 250 clothing articles was set, but more than 370 articles were collected.
Processing
The collected clothes were processed in 3 stages: sorting, ironing, and packaging.
Learners sorted the clothes according to sizes and genders. Clothes that needed it, were pressed. The last stage was packing the clothes in plastic bags with lots of love and care. A whole day was spent in the Stratford Hall for this activity.
Distribution
On Saturday, 30th November 2020, learners set up a “street store” in FESWO’s school. Children were offered to choose their clothes from the stalls, try them on and exchange them later if needed. The idea was to create a shopping experience for the kids.
The teachers and staff also got to choose the clothes they liked for themselves and their families.
It was a great exercise in project management and teamwork for the learners of year 11. The essence of community service was well captured by working selflessly for those in need while sacrificing their own time and energy. The sense of achieving a set target with an approaching deadline also helped them on how to make the best use of resources available.