Cloth for Work

Summary

Cloth is given as a motivation, with dignity, to people working on their own community issues. We turn age old charitable cloth into a resource for much needed development work in Indian villages.

What is the issue, problem, or challenge?

Issues like road repair, drainage cleaning, building schools, cleaning of wells and other water; critical for agriculture and household use, remain neglected in the absence of funds, manpower and political will. The villagers are the ultimate sufferers. Vast stocks of clothes and other things are lying idle in cities while the poor in the villages struggle for the basics. In ‘Cloth for Work’ villages take up a development activity and get clothes as a motivation instead of as a donation.

How will this project solve this problem?

-Briefing partner groups to understand the value of cloth & how it can promote development work -Village level meetings to form a consensus on the issues to work on -Tree plantation, cleaning of wells, making new schools, land cultivation etc

Potential Long Term Impact

Since villagers work on issues identified by them there is a big sense of ownership for that work; whether its cleaning their surroundings or cultivating a patch of rocky land, the self initiated activities have high sustainability.

Project Message

The act of giving means less if in the process you take away the person’s dignity, sometimes the only thing they have left. Villagers feel employed and also satisfaction in doing something.
- Anshu Gupta, Founder Director

Additional Documentation

This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).

Resources