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Goonj

         In order to collect materials for the NGO known as Goonj, our school conducted a collection drive. As part of Goonj’s School to School initiative, which involves urban schools giving clothes, stationary, bags and notebooks to lesser fortunate rural schools. However, they are not given these packs for free, but rather rewarded based upon their academic activity and other aspects such as general hygiene or class participation.                                                       
         Informing every class of this collection drive was a cumbersome task, but once completed, people were donating almost every other day, with many of the donations to be brand new. It was shocking to see two large bags full of only brand new khaki shorts! Several people had neatly packed many kinds of donations into a cardboard box with their own handwritten letter. I realised that we maybe should have put separate boxes for separate categories of items so as to make the task of sorting easier.                                                                                                                                  
        With two cupboards full of donations, we now faced the task of transporting all these goods to their collection centre. We eventually decided to take all of it in a mini-truck. Moving all the bags and boxes from the second floor to the truck was a tiresome job, but ultimately worth it. After spending a while trying to find the collection centre, we eventually made it.                                               
        Inside was a tremendous number of boxes and bags that filled up the entirety of an already huge room. There, we were shown the contents of a family pack which included clothes for boys, girls, women and men as well as a blanket. There were at least a hundred of these family packs stacked up inside the room. After a brief discussion we eventually left, in hope of future collaborations with the Goonj team!

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