Enterprising Hillsborough Students Ship Clothing to Villages in India
HILLSBOROUGH, NJ – Rohan Singh and Ritik Gupta, seniors at Hillsborough High School are helping impoverished populations in some of the most underprivileged parts of Southeast Asia by tutoring younger students, cleaning out their closets and asking others to do the same.
Through their nonprofit charity organization “Coaching to Contribute,” Rohan and Ritik have shipped over 1,000 pounds of traditional Indian clothing donations to various parts of India. To pursue this cause, the young men partnered with shipping company Universal Relocations and nonprofit organizations Pathshala and Sevatirth, both of which are located in Vadodara, India. A portion of the donations was also sent to JSM Public School located in northern India.
It was late 2016 when, having witnessed poverty first-hand during their previous visits to India, the boys realized that they needed to make an impact on society. This is when the idea of Coaching to Contribute first hatched in their minds.
Both Ritik and Rohan noticed that there were tons of lightly used traditional Indian clothing in the closets of their homes, collecting dust and never to be used again; sending the unused clothing to India made sense, an idea that gave birth to their organization.
Bolstered by the encouragement these boys received from their families, they started by cleaning out their own closets. They then reached out to their close family friends, tagging along donations as extra baggage with anyone going to India. They found that distributing within India was much cheaper than shipping the clothes all the way from America.
Soon, it became apparent that small shipments were not enough; larger shipments of clothing would need to be sent directly from the US to India, which would require a substantial amount of money. Rohan and Ritik worked tirelessly to spread the word about their organization so they could collect enough clothes for shipments.
They received clothes in all shapes and sizes which they had to carefully sort and box accordingly: child versus adult clothing, winter versus summer wear, and so on. They also worked out the shipment logistics with local shipping companies as well as the sister charity organizations in India who would receive the shipments at first port of entry. They spoke with several donation centers in India, particularly in Vadodara and northern part of India, to make sure that the donated clothes reach to the needy and were not mishandled. They registered their company as a New Jersey based nonprofit charity organization and qualified for 501(c)(3) non-profit status from the federal government.
To cover shipping expenses, Ritik and Rohan started weekly coaching classes for students of grades 4-8. They primarily focus on Math and English, including preparing students for competition mathematics. The nominal tuition fee that they charge goes 100 percent towards covering the shipping expenses for Coaching to Contribute. In order to obtain new donations and continue the supply chain, Coaching to Contribute has frequent clothing drives at various Indian cultural events. Ritik and Rohan have also spoken at multiple events, raising interest in their cause. Having already expanded their activities to other townships in NJ, the boys are working diligently with their close friends to set up something similar in U.K., where they hope to send their first shipment to India soon under Coaching to Contribute.
More information on their organization and how you can contribute, if you wish to, can be found on their website: https://www.coachingtocontribute.com/.