A heart-warming campaign, Wall of Kindness, provides homeless people with clothes
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A beautiful city must have a beautiful heart, too. It is heartening to see the idea of ‘Wall of Kindness’ catching on in Chandigarh. Outside schools and houses, people are hanging clothes or other items for any needy person to take away. The campaign to help homeless people anonymously started from Iran and it has spread to Pakistan, China, and India.
Photo By: TS Bedi
Usually, the movement’s motto is written on the Wall of Kindness: “If you don’t need it, leave it. If you need it, take it’’. In winter it was a blessing for the poor and the destitute who look for woollen clothes. The social media has helped promote the idea and, at some places, people have even started putting out books.
Volunteer organisation Yuvsatta, which brought the idea to Chandigarh, collaborates with schools and colleges to motivate people to hang their extra clothes, shoes, and utensils on ‘Neki Ki Deewar’. Yuvsatta coordinator Pramod Sharma has a Wall of Kindness outside his house, too. “We are going to involve the other educational institutions as well in the humanitarian work, to expand this project to the entire Tricity,” he said.
It was in September last year at Carmel Convent, Sector 9 that Devi Sirohi, chairperson of the Chandigarh Commission for the Protection of Child Rights, inaugurated the first kindness wall in the city in the presence of Sister Supreeta, the school’s principal. “We promote human values and friendship in a peaceful city,” Sirohi said.
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The next wall was prepared at Ishwar Singh Dev Samaj Senior Secondary School in Sector 21. Dev Samaj College chairman Nirmal Singh Dhillon did the honours. College principal Agnese Dhillon and school principal Sumati Kanwar were also present.
St Stephen’s School, Sector 45, also adopted the idea, and headmaster Louis Lopez dedicated the wall to the “humanitarian legacy of Mother Teresa”. Carmel Convent’s mathematics teacher Preeti Swami, who runs the institution’s ‘Peace Club’, said: “When Yuvsatta has inspired our students to realise their duty to society. They are pinning not only clothes but also shoes, water bottles, books, and other material to the wall.” “It works systematically, as all classes get their turn to participate,” she said.
So if you like the idea and would like to donate clothing, look for a Wall of Kindness in the city or make one of your own.
