Uday Foundation, Serving Underprivileged With Clothes, Food And Medicines

A well-known billionaire from China once said, “My grandmother has only one shirt in her wardrobe. My mother has three. My daughter's generation, 50 and 48 per cent of them she never wears.” That's fast fashion for you. It is replicating recent high-fashion trends and designs, mass producing them at a low cost and putting them into retail stores quickly to capitalise on the current high demand. Our stores are flooded with clothes, that then come flooding into our wardrobes, which then choke our landfills, lakes and rivers.

T-shirts, jeans, dresses, sweaters, jackets, trousers, shorts, skirts, and also old curtains, ripped mattresses, torn towels, discarded upholstery fabric and old dusters. Think of how much we throw away on a daily basis. You don't even need to go as far as a landfill, just look for the rubbish heap in your neighbourhood.

That's one side of the story. On the other side are communities who are still denied basic necessities such as clothing. Men and women are exposed to extreme weather without the protection of clothes, and children who don't have anything to wrap around themselves.

Donating clothes is the easiest and most obvious way to give your clothes a conscience. Not only do you extend their lives and keep them from polluting our environment as waste, but you also make a difference in the lives of those in need. And that is what Uday Foundation has made its mission – to make a positive impact in the lives of underprivileged families in India and to change their immediate circumstances in small and large ways.

As the seasons change, you may discover that your clothes from the previous year no longer fit. If you notice clothes piling up in your family's closets and want to help the less fortunate, donating clothes to Uday Foundation is a great way to help.

Uday Foundation, a Delhi-based charitable organisation, accepts all types of summer and winter clothing for children and adults. Started in 2007 after founder Rahul Verma's son fell ill, the Uday Foundation has served underprivileged people from various parts of India who have settled in Delhi with no food to eat, no shelter for protection, and no decent clothes to wear. Uday Foundation works with such people to help them with these basic needs and to give them dignity.

Reena Sen, Director of the Uday Foundation credits generous donors for helping the organisation by coming forward and donating their clothes with dignity. In a conversation with NDTV, she said,

They donate the stuff to us so that we can reuse it and it can be of use to the underprivileged ones. They donate with dignity because when you are donating clothes, it is for the dignity of the people. When we receive the stuff, it is in wearable condition.

Rashmi Pradhan, one of the donors said,

When I see people near the flyovers and on the roads or on the news, I feel like doing something for them. Whatever god has given me, I can part a little bit and help society. I donate clothes to the Uday Foundation. It gives me happiness and peace.

Vandana Vashisht, another donor, usually contributes in the form of food and clothing to help the economically weaker section of society. She said,

I am very happy with the Uday Foundation because the staff here is very helpful, responsible, and polite.

Once the clothes have been collected, the Uday Foundation team then sorts them according to size and gender. The Foundation asks for “gently used” clothes so that the dignity of those receiving them is kept intact. There is an army of volunteers working with the Uday Foundation to help them sort the clothes.

The van is then loaded with boxes of clothes. It's time to go, the engine's running, and the team cuts through Delhi traffic, making its way to different locations where the clothes distribution will happen.

In addition to clothes, the Uday Foundation also asks for old newspapers which they then sell to paper manufacturers. The money is used for food donation drives for the poor, waiting outside hospitals.

The clothes received by the Foundation are distributed amongst children and adults in hospitals, children living near railway tracks or under flyovers, children of daily wagers at construction sites and underprivileged children in government hospitals.

Rashmi Pradhan, a Clothes Donor said,

Clothes are very important; they are required for survival. Food and clothes are the basic things one requires.

Lauding the Uday Foundation, Vandana Vashisht, one of the Clothes Donors said,

It is a very good cause. There are many people who do not have clothes to wear, especially the patients. I feel more people should come forward.

When team NDTV visited the office of the Uday Foundation, the volunteers were stepping out to visit the community settled under the bridge beside the Okhla railway station. The majority of people here are migrant labourers with limited to no resources. It isn't just clothes. There is a daily struggle for food, water, and shelter. And so, the Foundation also accepts donations of dry ration, books, toys, bags, shoes, crockery and utensils. The foundation, with help from its donors, also provides medical assistance to critically ill children.

Thanking the foundation for their kindness, one of the beneficiaries said,

We really appreciate you giving us these clothes. You come at the right time and bring us nice clothes.

Another beneficiary blessed the volunteers and said,

 I am blessing you from my heart. You are helping us. You are doing something for us poor people.

While signing off, Ms Sen made a clarion call for donations and said,

In the future, I would want more and more people to come and support us and also, they should be sensitised enough to the dignity of other people.