BENGALURU : Summer is here, and like every other year, this year too the city is bracing itself for yet another hot (or hotter) summer. While most of us are concerned about how we can beat the heat in our own ways, Gimme5, an Ahmedabad-based NGO works towards providing shoes and slippers to those who cannot afford them.The purpose of the ‘Soles for Souls’ project is to initiate a process, where shoes and slippers are dropped off at designated drop points. These pairs are then collected, segregated and distributed to slum areas, organisations and NGOs. In Bengaluru, Poornima Alexander and Urvashi Saini have volunteered to arrange and take charge of the process. This will be the first time such a project is happening in the city.
Siddharth Trivedi, a member of the trustee of Gimme5, says, “The initiative started in Ahmedabad in 2013 and eventually spread across many cities in the country. We take up different projects once in every five years. We give our volunteers trophies and certificates at the end of the project.”Poornima Alexander, who works as an interior designer, is leading the project in the city. She says, “When I saw a message about this project, I found it very interesting. It is a beautiful thing to do. So I called them up and said I would love to volunteer for Bengaluru. I then made the arrangements for it such as the drop points. I spoke to a few people in the city to help. There are also many orphanages in the city that are looking forward to collecting children’s shoes for school going kids.”
Mini Jayakrishnan, a volunteer from Sarjapur, says, “We will be using the boxes Poornima has provided us to collect the shoes. We’ll start collecting them from March 18. We are getting a good response, in fact, school children are waiting for their exams to get over, so they can donate their school shoes.”
Mahesh Kumar M L, another volunteer and the board of manager of Brigade Gateway apartments, says, “We have kept individual card boxes in the lobby and have advertised about it at all the blocks. Few of my friends have also planned to buy new slippers and shoes to donate them to the association.”
Drop points for shoes
Pebbles Bay, RMV 2nd stage
Brigade Gateway, Dr Rajkumar Road,
Rajajinagar
Green Carpet, Agara Extention Sector 5, HSR Layout
Salarpuria Serenity, HSR Layout
Shobha Garnet, Bellandur
Embassy Pristine, Behind Suncity
Adarsh Palm Retreat, #77 Phase3, Bellandur
Rmz Eco Space, Outer Ring Road
Sunny Brooks, Sarjapur Road
Purva Sunshine, Sarjapur Road
Raheja Residency, Koramangala
Big Bazaar, RBI Layout, JP Nagar
L&T South City Apartment, Banergatta Road
Things to remember
If you are keen to donate, keep these in mind:
Make sure that the used footwear is in good condition
Remember to tie them in pairs, to help save time for the volunteers while sorting them out