Scores of needy families had an opportunity to access free clothing for their households at the Divali Nagar over the weekend as SEWA TT hosted its sixth annual clothing drive.
The annual clothing drive gives families the opportunity to outfit themselves at no cost.
One of the organisation’s volunteers, Jesse Rampersad, explained the process.
“The collection process usually starts after Divali. So we collected items over a two-day period, one weekend. We collected approximately 33,000 items. To date, we had over 300 persons volunteering, over 3,000 man-hours in sorting the clothing, packing, racking, stocking and laying out the items that you see here today.”
Another volunteer, Gicelle Rodriguez, noted that some of the families which were able to access two or three suits of clothing were from other countries.
“Their reaction is amazing because they didn’t expect so much organisation that SEWA is having in this drive clothes. It is like a big store, department, where you just go with everything organised by size, it have AC. It have all the volunteers working from here, helping as much as they can. My own family doing translation for Venezuelans who speaking the Spanish.”
Meanwhile, Prithibi Bissram shared her experience as a first-time volunteer at the annual event.
“It is a humane thing to have clothes on your back. And not only that, but SEWA is an organisation that prides itself on giving back, and that’s what they’re doing. The stereotype. Yes, there is the stereotype, but I personally did not see it here, honestly. Even the people. They weren’t like they, they didn’t make it seem like it was charity or anything. They made it seem like it’s just something and the way do it as well. The individuals, they have the time to come and select what they want so it gives back that feeling of normalcy.”
The volunteers noted that while all of the donated clothing was not distributed over the weekend, other Non-Government Organisations will be given the chance to distribute the items to the needy in their communities.