On a mission to provide free clothing to needy

Hyderabad: Munawar, a rickshaw puller near Moghulpura, had only two pairs of clothes, but today, he has half a dozen, thanks to Cloth Bank, Hyderabad. Hundreds of poor in the city who cannot even afford to buy clothes are now getting benefitted and it is all because to two men -- Khalid Yamani and Mohammed Umar.

Started in 2016, the duo distributed some 5,000 clothes, so far. "The idea of distributing clothes inspired me when I watched a video on YouTube, along with my friend Mohammed Umar. We collected some clothes from our neighbors and relatives and stocked at my friend's house, and later distributed the clothes to 35 poor people at Osmania Hospital," says Khalid Yamani, the founder of Cloth Bank, Hyderabad.

"Today, we have our own office in Shama Talkies Road. The basic objective of this bank is simple. We collect clothes from the people who no longer need them and distribute to the needy in slums, NGOs and government hospitals," he said.

All clothes are carefully examined for any wear and tears, missing buttons, hooks, loose stitching and are segregated according to the size and gender. Then, it is sent for dry-cleaning and ironing before they are given in transparent plastic bags to the beneficiaries.

"At the beginning we were only two friends, and I created a page on FaceBook, named Cloth Bank Hyderabad and posted various pictures. Slowly, our work started getting noticed and many started donating clothes and over 15 volunteers joined us.

Many people donate money to our organization. Recently we started supplying grocery items to the needy. Once enough number of clothes gets collected in our bank, we distribute among the poor. Apart from this, the organisation provides essential grocery items, including rice, wheat and flour to various NGOs and also to underprivileged.