Goonj is a Delhi-based NGO established in 1999, operating across 21 Indian states, focusing on disaster relief, community development, and repositioning urban discards as a resource for rural development. It conducts several initiatives like 'Clothes for Work' which incentivizes community development through clothing rewards, and 'School to School' that channels educational materials to under-resourced rural schools. Goonj has made significant impacts through various projects, addressing neglected issues and fostering local volunteerism while providing essential services during disasters.

2. ABOUT THE ORGANISATION :
Goonj is a non-governmental organisation
based in Delhi, which works in 21 states across
India.
Disaster Relief
Humanitarian Aid
Community Development.
Established in 1999 by Mr. Anshu Gupta,
1,000 tonnes of used clothes Household Goods
Other Urban Discards Usable Resources for the Poor.
•It collects and delivers 1,000 tons of material every year through a network of 500
volunteers and 250 partners.
•Besides it run infrastructure and local development projects in villages and slum areas.
Focus :
• In the race of development we all are too focused on machines i.e. the
big, known issues and are ignoring the needles the most important small parts i.e.
issues.
•Highlight clothing as a basic but unaddressed need which deserves a place on the
development agenda.
•Reposition discard of urban households as a development resource for villages,
moving away from its age old stance as a charitable object.
•Organizations in the world, constructively reviving and strengthening rural
volunteerism, to solve its own problems, digging deep into the age old wisdom and
knowledge base of the villages.
GOONJ has the rare distinction- of an equally vast reach among the masses in
the villages as well as the cities across India.
(source : goonj.org)

3. GOONJ OFFICES IN INDIA :
•Jammu & Kashmir (Srinagar)
•Delhi (Head Quarters)
•Uttarakhand-Rishikesh,
Uttarkashi,
Guptkashi.
•Bihar (Patna)
•West Bengal-Kolkata
•Odisha-Bhuwaneshwar
•Maharashtra-Mumbai
•Telangana-Hyderabad
•Karnataka-Bengaluru
Figure: Goonj Offices in India

4. INITIATIVES BY GOONJ :
1. Clothes for work (CFW) :
GOONJ and its grassroots level partners involve the local villagers in addressing their own
neglected development issues in the community, in exchange they are rewarded with clothes as
a motivation and not as a charity.
Roads Repairing , Digging of Wells, Building School Boundary walls &
cleanliness/plantation programmes were initiated without any Financial Transaction.
Building of Bamboo bridges under Clothes for work Initiative. (Source: goong.org)

5. INITIATIVES BY GOONJ : (continued…)
2. School to School (S2S) :
Supports resource starved Rural and Slum schools by introducing the needs of these
students to:
Urban students & their parents, other Urban Schools, and Organisations to give -
Material in form of School Kits:
• Old Books,
• Uniforms,
• Shoes,
• School Bags, etc.
Channelising all these things to
thousands of village children,
motivating them towards learning.
Facilitating the school children with school kits (sourcegoonj.org)

6. INITIATIVES BY GOONJ : (continued…)
3. Not Just a Piece of Cloth (NJPC) :
• Many women’s in India hesitate to even take about the issue of MENSES,
• Even men also thinks that this is a Women oriented issue and it is ignored.
• Many Women are scared and due to different superstitions they suffer a lot.
They are not allowed to (cook, touch someone!, pray, sleep o the bed, etc)
•Many Women uses rags, dirty clothes, ashes and hay during menses.
We should take it as a natural process in women when she reaches her puberty, and
stop treating like a taboo in the 21st century.
 Goonj has taken the initiative to give this great help and dignity in the form of
‘Not just a Piece of Cloth’.
Educating Women in Uttarakhand Making ‘My Pad’ from old clothes
(Source : goonj.org)

7. INITIATIVES BY GOONJ : (continued…)
4. Rahat :
The emphasis is on the most neglected disasters like people dying of cold in winters
& annual floods across India. GOONJ emerged as one of the biggest relief agencies in
the past few disasters.
During any Disaster Goonj gives :
• Clothes,
•Food materials and
•Medicines in the form of relief.
Facilitating the peoples in Uttarakhand in the recent floods. (source: goonj.org)

8. WORKING MODEL FOR GOONJ :
STAGE1 :
RECONNAISANCE AND
SURVEYING
STAGE2 :WORKING
STAGE3 :
IMPLEMENTATION
AND
MONITIRING
• Connecting to different organisations at Grassroot level.
• Going at site and Surveying that the area needs attention.
• Organising Meetings at Community Level .
(To give an idea of the work which is to be implemented)
• Shifting Kits and logistics as per Households present.
• Solving any issues (if any) at Site.
• Making of Self Helped Groups (SHG)/Working groups.
(Fixing the Date and Time for Working Days)
• Working on Site at Community Level.
• Distribution of Kits / Goods at the site.
• Proper Documentation of the programme.
• If Any Advocacy is needed with the Administrative Bodies.
• Making reports and submitting to the Head office.

9. TASK DURING THE INTERNSHIP :
The task assigned to me was to go to the Field on site and do Impact Assessment.
Field Trips :
1. Kochuberia, Sagar Island 130 K.m from the state capital Kolkata. Pond called ‘Tank Par’
was surrounded by 60-64 household who were dependent on it, before Goonj has taken an
initiative to clean the pond with the help of it grass root level organisatiton.
There Goonj has worked under the scheme Clothes for work (CFW).
•Pond called ‘Tank Par’ it was in bad condition .
•Covered by ‘Water Hyacinth’ the water was degrading , and
• Was a breeding hub for mosquitoes causing a lot problems (allergies, infections, dysentery)
(Map Source: google maps)

10. Value of the Pond ‘Tank Par’ and After Cleaning the pond :
•The people were dependent on the pond since many years .
•washing, bathing and feeding their cattle pond’s water, etc.
•Also every year in the month of January Kumbh Mela during ‘Makar Sankranti 13-
14th January’ happens here at the Sagar Islands catering about 5 lakhs of tourists and
visitors.
Pond after Cleaning. People Using the pond freely. Plantation and Cattle
resting.
• They use it without any hesitation,
• Plantation of many Vegetables and Fruit plants around the bank of the pond,
• Desalination of nearby ponds by taking the water of the pond,
• People from other villages also use the pond for washing and bathing also each year
Gangasagar Mela/ Fair happens then visitors and tourists use the pond freely.

11. 2. Mallarpur, Birbhum district, West Bengal.
(Map Source: google maps)
Next Field trip was to Mallarpur 35 km north from Shantiniketan ,
There Goonj has worked under the initiative School to School (S2S) with the help of its grass
root level organisation ‘Nai Suva’ and facilitated School shoes to the children’s of different
schools in Mallarpur.
The Schools were:
a. Meteldanga Adiwasi Para Sishu Siksha Kendra (SSK), Mallarpur.
b. Kutubhpur Integrated Child Development Services Scheme (ICDS), Mallarpur.
c. Mallarpur Nibedita Cluster, NCLP (National Child Labour Project) Mallarpur.
d. Bhalkopahari Akal Vidyalaya, Mallarpur.

12. ISSUES :
“Here the girl is forced to marry when she is in Class V and she has her
baby in her early puberty, which is the culture here…” told by a Head-
mistress of a school in a tribal area of Mallarpur.
• Lack of Eagerness of the parents to send their kids to school.
• Implementing agencies of the Government/other organisations were on paper but
the reality was different.
• Social and Political influence were very powerful in these areas.
• The Children were mentally not very well prepared and the teachers should give
more suggestive counselling to the students as well as to their parents.
• It’s been seen that the teachers are not changed for many years that may lead to less
and inadequate development or change in education system of the area.

13. A BIG SMILE IN ON LITTLE FACE :
‘Goonj is doing a very good job without seeking any sort of profit in it…
It’s good to have so many smiles on the faces of the kids who were cherished after
getting a pair of shoes these kids go through a lot of things, in the age of playing
and studying they work in fields in scorching heat and no clothes in the winters...’
Work done for the cause of :
• Motivation of the Students.
• Giving them a scope to come to School, make a better life.
• Cheering them for proper ethics, values, good change in behaviour.
• Extra curricular activities . (Plantation, games, reading and writing skills..etc)
• By distribution of kits at schools not to show them how helpless they are,
but to make a small difference to achieve in mere future.

14. Pictures :
1. Children studying at a school.
2. Shoe distribution
3. Children’s outside a school
4. Documentation of the distribution process
5. Children in a NCLP school
6. Children in a tribal area happy after getting pair of shoes.
1. 2. 3.
4. 5.
6.

15. LEARNINGS :
During the process the skills developed:
Working as a team.
How to Co-ordinate between different organisations.
How to Implement and monitor in a systematic way.
Be attentive in work and making the toughest challenges easy.
Serving the people (who are in urgent need) without seeking any profit.
Thank You….