Donating clothing overseas

Eupfhoria

I was hoping to get some advice on what would be the most efficient way to donate some clothing to an organization involved with the refugee crisis, but really don't know where to start (the websites I've seen, such as www.unrefugees.org/, only seem to deal with cash donations, and I'm of the mind that the clothing itself would be of more use than donating the cash I might get by selling it all)

thanks

ceres

This one seems to be general, not just Syria: http://www.uniqlo.com/en/csr/refugees/recycle/

To be honest though, from what I've read you might be better off donating used goods locally, to a clothing bank where you can easily ask questions about how the clothing will be used if it concerns you. That's what I do at this point. Anything we can't use or don't want anymore goes to a local food bank willing to sort through bags of stuff and take what they can use, passing the rest along to other organizations that specialize.

Six

The problem with donating goods and not money to some place far away is that the cost needed to get the goods to the far away place may offset the value of them in the first place. You're better off donating clothes locally so they can be used without a high cost of delivery. If you want to help those overseas, cash is a better and more efficient option, since there's minimal cost to get it into the right hands where it can be put to good use.

I'm reminded of this lovely exchange from the Ricky Gervais Podcast.

Madican

Six wrote: »

The problem with donating goods and not money to some place far away is that the cost needed to get the goods to the far away place may offset the value of them in the first place. You're better off donating clothes locally so they can be used without a high cost of delivery. If you want to help those overseas, cash is a better and more efficient option, since there's minimal cost to get it into the right hands where it can be put to good use.

I'm reminded of this lovely exchange from the Ricky Gervais Podcast.

Not just cost of shipping the item, but sending anything except money has the potential to devalue whatever business the ones you're trying to help are running to survive. Doesn't just apply to refugees either. Imagine your business is a small one creating pieces of clothing to sell. That's your livelihood and what you depend on. Then a charity starts distributing clothing for free to everyone. Suddenly your livelihood just collapsed due to that charity. Insert pretty much every basic necessity.

It's best to send straight money to a reliable charity who focuses on aiding people, since they'll not only know how to use that money to improve the people you're trying to help, but do it in a way that doesn't destroy their meager means of getting by.