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386 kilos of clothes for the ‘Give your clothes a second life’ campaign
During the past few weeks PhD student Maria Renee Barreal collected 386 kilograms of clothes at the VUB for the ‘Give your clothes a second life’ campaign of SB Overseas. This Belgian non-profit organization launched the campaign to help Syrian families in refugee camps in Lebanon and Turkey survive the hard winter.
“Every day we hear stories on the news about the horrible conditions in the refugee camps, but we often feel like there’s nothing we can do about it, because it’s so far away”, says Maria Renee Barreal. “With this project, I saw my opportunity to help Syrian refugees, without actually having to be in the conflict zones”, explains the PhD student, who organized the project at campus Etterbeek with support of the VUB Chair of Social Entrepreneurship.
For the past weeks, VUB students and personnel could drop their old clothes and shoes off at the Student Information Hub. The goal to fill ten suitcases with 250 kilograms of clothes has been largely exceeded with the assembled 386 kilograms. The clothes and shoes will now be shipped to the three refugee camps of SB Overseas in Lebanon and Turkey, where they will be distributed among the Syrian families.
“I never could have imagined that the collection would be such a great success, but thanks to the Chair of Social Entrepreneurship we were able to reach and exceed our goal!” says a proud Maria Renee.
The Chair was established in 2015 by professor Nikolay Dentchev, in cooperation with Close the Gap, Wolters Kluwer and Euroclear. It focusses on scientific research in social entrepreneurship, but also offers support to social entrepreneurs via a crowdsourcing and crowdfunding platform. According to Philippe Eiselein – PhD student and webmaster of the Chair - the platform was created because extra support for entrepreneurial students at the VUB was needed. “The Chair of Social Entrepreneurship encourages social entrepreneurs and helps them lift their projects to the next level. Moreover, the platform can bring you in contact with relevant organizations”, Maria Renee confirms.
A warm sweater and coffee from the Social Ecological Activists
This academic year the Social Ecological Activists organize the fourth edition of their clothes collection at the VUB for the homeless in Brussels.
The student organization fosters social and ecological development at the VUB and wants to inform students about several social and ecological themes. They do this through lectures, debates and field trips. Among their successful projects are the famous Veggie Night, the Divestment project and of course their annual clothes collection for the homeless.
“We hope the clothes collection will be as successful as last year”, says Jonathan Bertholet, the former Chairman of S.E.A.
From the end of November onwards, VUB students and personnel can drop their old clothes off at the Student Information Hub. Every week, the volunteers of S.E.A will bring the clothes to the homeless in the center of Brussels and offer them hot coffee.
“We believe it’s important to not forget the homeless people. After all, they are a part of the Brussels community. With this project, we hope to help them a little bit”, explains Jonathan. “If we already think it’s cold outside, what must people who live on the streets in Brussels during the bitter winter months experience?”
During the Christmas holidays, they also brighten the homeless’ day with little presents. S.E.A encourages all students and personnel to contribute their bit by dropping off old clothes. As Jonathan concludes: “All help is welcome”
Interested students are always welcome on the weekly meetings of S.E.A. More information on this student organization and their projects can be found on their Facebook page.
Launch your own warm initiative?
Would you like to set up an initiative for a good cause? Launch your own project via VUB For Life. You can always get support from the Chair of Social Entrepreneurship!