Second life for used items

The Community of mutual support of homeless people "Our house" asks for help to buy containers for the collection of used items. They'll sort and restore collected items and sell them in the social second-hand shop in Drogobych. The results of this work will be the following: homeless people will have jobs and receive salaries, they'll maintain themselves and the community the community of the homeless, there will be a shop with cheap clothes for poor people in the town, people will not throw away their used clothes but will give them to people in need doing charity and supporting the homeless.

A large number of homeless people in Drohobych are coming here from other cities and this creates problem for the community. The homeless, to some extent are a problem for every city: but for Drohobych the situation is very difficult as only one organization, “Our house”, takes care of these people.

To solve this problem our volunteers want to place containers for collection of used clothing and other items in the town. Also we would like to organize, in the city centre, a social shop in which the homeless will sort the items and restore them. The homeless will receive clothes for free. In this shop they will also receive information about “Our house” and other shelters in the Lviv region. The shop will be open for other people as well, for a small donation people will be able to buy things they like. All profits will be spent on salaries for the homeless and for the maintenance of their community.

This model of self-maintanance for homeless communities is wide-spread in European countries and in some big cities in Ukraine. In Drohobych there is nothing of this kind; however, our volunteers are well acquainted with the operation of such projects and are ready to implement it. It will have a significant positive influence on solving the social problem of homelessness in our city and hopefully the public’s negative attitude will change towards the homeless.

Today we have many volunteers ready to help this social initiative. We have also found a good place to rent for the future social shop. We can do many things ourselves, but the first step is to buy these new containers. We sincerely ask you to help us to purchase these new containers.