Festival of Lights is here, brighten up someone's world with new clothes

CHENNAI: With Diwali round the corner, shopping areas are abuzz with people buying new clothes for home and hearth. But a group of citizens is trying to ensure the festival of lights dawns bright for the less privileged by gifting new clothes for the festival.
Karthee Vidya of Team Everest, an NGO that works to promote volunteering and provide education, has launched `Diwali for All', a fundraising campaign to buy new clothes for the underprivileged.
“Everyone wants to wear something new on Diwali so we want to gift clothes to orphans, senior citizens in old age homes and homeless people,“ says Karthee. “Anyone can sponsor a dress for ` 500. Most of our beneficiaries are from Tiruvannamalai so we have spoken to vendors there. We will give tokens to the beneficiaries, and they can shop for themselves. That way they get the shopping experience, and can choose what they want,“ says Karthee, adding that donations can be made online at http:www.bit.lydiwali17.
Team Everest has also partnered with Cooptex. “People shopping in our showrooms can pick vouchers for ` 250 and ` 500 till October 16,“ says MD of Coop tex T N Venkatesh. Cooptex will provide clothes equivalent to the money collected to Team Everest, who will distribute it to the beneficiaries.
Iyyappan Subramaniyan, founder of Sri Arunodayam Charitable Trust, will be gifting new clothes to workers in crematorium grounds in Kolathur, Annanagar and Padi. “They do a great service to society but are largely unacknowledged,“ says Iyyappan, who approached his friends for help. “I will be gifting lungis, shirts sweets to about 35 people on October 12,“ he says.
Individuals are also pitching in. Sumita Pai has been running the campaign #sareesbynight since 2015.“People donate new saris and dhotis to me and I distribute it to the corporation sanitation workers, 95% of whom are women,“ says Sumita, who has collected 100 saris this year. Since the women usually work from 10pm to 4am, Sumita drives around at night, distributing the clothes.
“I will be distributing the saris till a day before Diwali. People who want to donate money or saris can write to kaitharichennai@gmail.com,“ she says. In CIT Colony, Mylapore Subhashini Srinivasan of The S Studio, which specialises in handcrafted saris, has set up a kiosk on its premises where people can donate used clothes that are in good condition till October 16.
“The clothes will be given to Little Drops, a home for destitute women and elderly people,“ says Subhashini.