Goonj

Goonj is an Indian organisation that uses surplus material from cities as a resource for development work in villages and for disaster relief. Its work rests on two ideas: human dignity and the world's surplus. It says it aims to build the self-worth and dignity of ordinary people in villages and cities across India. It treats rural communities as equal stakeholders who use what they already have to solve their own problems, not as recipients of charity. Goonj collects clothing, household goods and other material through urban drives and processing centres. It then sorts, repurposes and sends this material to communities, often in return for work the community does on its own development.

Headquarters: New Delhi, Delhi, India

Major Areas of Work

• Disaster response and mitigation: Relief, rehabilitation and resilience-building with communities hit by floods, droughts, cyclones and other emergencies.

• Climate and environmental action: Reducing, reusing and recycling surplus material, mostly textiles, to cut waste and support a circular economy.

• Water, sanitation, health and hygiene: Work on water access, sanitation and menstrual hygiene in rural communities.

• Repurposed material based livelihood: Creating paid work and cloth-based employment from surplus and discarded material.

• Education and access to infrastructure: Supplying school material to rural children and supporting community-built infrastructure such as roads, bridges and water sources.

Major Initiatives and Programmes

• Cloth for Work: Goonj's core model, in which communities receive repurposed material in return for work on local development projects they choose themselves.

• Rahat: Goonj's disaster relief and rehabilitation work, which puts communities first in recovery and building long-term resilience.

• Not Just a Piece of Cloth (NJPC): A menstrual hygiene initiative that turns surplus cotton cloth into biodegradable sanitary pads, sold as Goonj MY Pad.

• School to School (S2S): Collects school material from urban schools and the public and puts it together into school kits for rural students.

• Joy of Sharing Month: A yearly pan-India campaign that asks people to share time, skills, material and money through sharing camps, walkathons and fundraising events.

• Societal Alliance for Resilience and Response to Disasters (SARRD): A people-led alliance that Goonj describes as globally adaptable, set up to strengthen disaster response and resilience.

Cloth for Work is the base for most of Goonj's rural programmes. Instead of handing out donations, Goonj gives material in return for work. Villagers build or repair roads, wells, bridges, ponds and other community assets, and receive clothing, household items or other material for that labour. Goonj says this approach respects the dignity of the people receiving material and gets communities to invest in their own development.

Leadership

• Anshu Gupta, Founder

• Meenakshi Gupta, Co-founder

Goonj runs large field operations across many Indian states, through state chapters, processing centres and a nationwide network of partner organisations. Staff work across material management, logistics, disaster response, rural project implementation, urban partnerships, fundraising and communications. Many team members have stayed for a decade or more and moved from field roles into state or functional leadership. The organisation suits people who want hands-on, operations-heavy work that connects cities and villages. It also offers fellowships and internships, including paid urban internships, for people starting out in the sector.