VISAKHAPATNAM : To bring the underprivileged a decent shopping experience and moreover for free, youngsters from various colleges of the city came up with the idea of setting up a ‘Street Store’ and distribute clothes to the needy.
Stalls were setup near government degree college at Old Jail Road, Monday, under various categories including garments for women, gents, kids as well as toys and the youngsters distributed them for free of cost. All the products were collected by the students creating an off-line and online awareness among students.
Speaking to express, while selecting a huge teddy bear for his daughter; a father of six-year-old, N Lakshmi said, “I will finally be able to see an ear-to-ear smile on my baby’s face, which is a rare frame in a house of people like us.” Thanking the initiative another parent said that he would have never been able to dress his daughter in a pretty dress like the one he picked from the store.
How it all started:
It was A Triveni, a CA student, who was motivated with such work in South Africa. To bring the same kind of initiative in the city, she put her idea on social networking sites, tagging her friends. Receiving good response to the overall concept and rise of Street Store gathering, the team started to execute the plans.
“We went to various colleges and schools in the city and presented our idea to donate un-used clothes to the needy. We left baskets in each centre, so that students who liked our concept and motto could leave the clothes in those baskets,” said Triveni.
The team received a tremendous response with almost all the 30 bags full from the 20 campuses they visited. Clothes included pants, shirts, tee shirts, sarees, chudidars of almost all ages apart from kidswear. Besides that, following their FB page ‘Street Store Vizag’, a few contacted the organisers and donated usables also.
Moreover, the team conducted a survey visiting slum areas in various parts of the city and distributed tokens. “Our motto is not only to donate to the poor, but also to the ones who need it as well. There are many people below poverty line who despite working hard for their family cannot afford the required clothes neither for themselves nor for their kids or family. So we started searching for them instead and gave them tokens,” said S Daniel, a member of Street Store.
The team has more than 35 volunteers, with the help of whom they had organised the event at Old Jail Road. People who were given tokens, selected dresses and walked out with a bright smile, especially kids. Volunteers themselves helped the kids in selecting suitable clothes.