Popularly known as ‘The Pop-Up Clothing Store’, here’s the world’s first rent-free, premises-free, free clothing store for the homeless- The Street Store. Founded by Max Pazak and Kayli Levitan with the support of M&C Saatchi Abel Cape Town, The Street Store was launched in S. Africa in January 2014. This initiative aims at bridging the gap between the rich and the poor by making it easier to give donations, and more dignified to receive them.

The store is set up on the sidewalk or on a fence with only cardboard boxes and posters in the shape of hangers. People interested in donating just hang clothes on the posters and drop off shoes and other useful items in cardboard boxes placed below. All this happens right on the street, completely accessible to homeless people. The founders of The Street Store say that homelessness is not limited to South Africa and hence anyone can host one. “We created it, you curate it” is their motto. So far The Street Store has been set up in South Africa, Brazil, Canada and The United States. We too can set up our own!

According to The United Nations Commission on Human rights an estimated 100 million people are homeless world over. The Street Store is a fantastic initiative that not only allows recycling of used items but an opportunity to make the lives of homeless people anywhere in the world more comfortable, by making it easier to receive items for daily use in a respectable manner; a heart-warming initiative which has the power to bring together the haves and have nots.

All we have to do is follow some simple steps mentioned on their website, and we can have our very own Street Store for all those people who roam the streets in tattered clothes, without footwear, who duck under bridges on rainy days, who have no means of cleaning themselves, who could really use the stuff that we choose not to use. What say India?