Innovation

An Idea can change your life & Others also.

GOONJ
Started

in 1998 with 67 personal clothes, GOONJ was

an organization which say to the clothing needs of the
needy by transferring second hand clothing to them.

Today

GOONJ is channelizing more than 40,000 kgs

of material every month.

five member governing body, over 300 volunteersspread all over, headed by Anshu Gupta, an Ashoka
Fellow, as the Founder Director of GOONJ.

Objective
Spread awareness about
the concept at a level so
that anytime an urban
household thinks of
disposing off reusable
material it should have a
channel to reach it to the
most needy.

VISION
Making clothing a matter
of concern as a basic
need..

MISSION
Re-positioning cloth
and other
underutilized
material, beyond
charity, adding dignity
and turning it into a
big resource for
development.

The Problems
Absence

of culture and mechanism to transfer

excess and unused material from rich to poor.

35%

population in India impoverished with

unfulfilled basic needs of shelter, food and
clothing.

Regular

collecting agencies not capable enough to

meet end user demands.

Collection at community hubs like schools and

residential societies.
COLLECTION MODEL.
Theme based collection to meet
specific needs of the
beneficiaries. For example, Rahat
Winters is the theme for
collecting woolens for near snow
line villages in hilly regions.
Scrap cloth is collected from
tailors.

Work Flow: Collection

Collected material is audited and taken to

Goonj center
It is washed, repaired and sorted. Sorting is
done according to size.
Sorting is done on the basis of statistical
data mined as part of Goonjs extensive
market surveys. Example: Average waist
size for rural male 26-32. Average waist
size for urban male 34-40

Metal scrap is collected.

All staples from stapled sheets in offices
are also sorted.
All collected metal wastes such as paper
clips, pins and staples are then sold as
iron. These collected quantities are
huge.

Old books are also collected.

Old toys are also collected in order to

set up activity centres in villages

Collection of waste stationery is also

made from colleges where often one
side of the sheets used are left
blank. Notebooks are made out of
these.

Torn Jeans Now a School kit

This is how the old sofas are used

Creating bamboo schools and

libraries..

Collection
JALANDHAR

DELHI

CHANDIGARH

KOLKATA

MUMBAI

PUNE

GOONJ
CENTRES

BANGALORE

CHENNAI

HYDERABAD

BIHAR

Matching Demand and Supply

DEMAND
Detailed market surveys
and consumer insights used
to match the specific
demand needs.
Factors like Gender,
lifestyle ,regions, climate
etc are used to understand
the needs.
Eg, in the south and the
North East women wear
more of night gowns

SUPPLY
Donor attitudes are
changed about unused
articles and clothes at
home.
Goonj endeavours to
create a culture of Giving
and not Discarding.
These efforts are in the
direction of creating
enough supply for the
cause.

Goonj Innovative initiatives

.

VASTRA
SAMMAAN

PRATIBIMB

CLOTH
FOR
WORK

RAHAT

EK JODI
KAPDA

GOONJ

RECYCLING
A STEP
AHEAD

WOMAN
HYGIENE

SCHOOL
TO
SCHOOL

School to School
Establishing

a relationship between urban and rural

schools by channelizing school supplies from one to
another.
Building a sense of empathy among urban children
towards the needs of their rural counterparts.

Pratibimb
Initiated in 2006 , Pratibimb is an annual
one to one interaction event between urban
and rural children to further cement the
relationship between them as also to move
them away from the bias led donor
beneficiary mindset. The event has not only
proved to be a great success, it has opened
up many minds and become GOONJs
flagship event.

Vastra Samaan
VASTRA-SAMMAN
Nationwide movement
highlighting the importance of
cloth as a basic need of poor.
Started with 67 personal
clothes, now reaching over
40000 kgs of material every
month.

Rahat
RAHAT
Initiative for reaching relief in natural and human made disasters apart from
annual disasters like floods and winters, active since the Chamoli earthquake in
1999.
RAHAT Winters is aregular campaign to build up awareness on treating winters
as an annual disaster. It seeks support of people to reach material in the villages
where countless people die or suffer due to the scarcity of a basic pair of clothing or
cut jungles to keep themselves warm.
Turning Tsunami wastage into a resource: A first of its kind initiative; after
tsunami GOONJ worked on over 2 million pieces of waste or undistributed clothes.
Around 50 women worked for two years and converted every single unit of this
massive wastage into a valuable cloth or product; right from school bags to sanitary
napkins.

Cloth for Work

Cloth for Work
The implementation of VASTRASAMMAN
takes place through Cloth for Work where clothes
and other material are not provided as charity but as
a development resource.
Initiating village level development activities,
such as building of wells, roads and villages and
using cloth as a motivation
Generating employment .
Adding an element of dignity to the recipients in
the process

Not just a piece of cloth; clean

cloth sanitary napkins
Addresses a basic need of village
women, by providing clean cloth
sanitary napkins.
GOONJ is actively campaigning in
rural & urban India to generate
awareness on this taboo issue.
They provide a pack of 5 cotton
strips at only 3rs and often distribute
it free.

Women Hygiene

Recycling a Step Ahead

Converting waste paper and cloth into a range
of useful products.
Two different ranges are developed keeping
in mind the utility in urban and rural/slum India.
School bags, tents and mats are developed for
rural areas.
A range of fancy bags made out of various
fabrics, yoga mats made out of saris and wallets
are developed to suit the urban demands.
Further, t-shirt and hosiery material used to
make under garments.
Baby beds made out of ultimate wastes

Goonj Way..
ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
The primary function of Goonj, Recycling, is in perfect allignment
with this principle. They utilize all sorts of wastes, right from clothes
to something as minute as staples.
This initiative mitigates the problem of pollution emanating from
waste material and creating health hazards.
SOCIAL EQUITY
Transferring the excess from the rich to the needy and poor.
Community development through cloth for work.
Emphasis on health and hygiene of women.
Bringing together urban and rural kids through events like Pratibimb
and reducing the class divides
Creating a culture of Giving
RULE OF LAW INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS
Through strict audits and transparency in its operations it maintains all
legal requirements.
It promotes the individual rights of dignity and access to basic
neccessities.

EMPLOYMENT
GENERATION
People are employed in the
making of bags, mats,
wallets etc.
HEALTH & HYGIENE
AWARENESS
Goonj provides sanitary
napkins to women and also
educates them about its use
and basic hygiene.
With warm clothing provided
by Goonj, less people fall ill
in the winters and die out of
cold.
SUSTAINABLE
ENVIRONMENT
Goonj is a successful model
of waste recycling and thus
reducing waste induced
pollution.

Impact

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Under Cloth for Work people
work in small projects such as
building bridges, digging wells
etc. This helps in development
of the villages where this
program runs.
GREATER URBAN RURAL
PARITY
Through its spreading volunteer
network and events like
Pratibimb, urban India becomes
more aware of rural needs.
Transferring of unused excess
from the rich to the poor.

THANK
YOU