to have reservations about sending secondhand clothes to refugees abroad

[LarrytheCucumber]

A friend of mine has co-ordinated a collection of clothes for refugees in Iraq.
The people the clothes are going to are in desperate need, but having seen some of the items which have been donated I wonder if we are really doing the right thing, spending money to send our unwanted clothes.

Honestly I think people talking about people in refugee camps with no access to local markets being desperate for stained clothing are being somewhat naive. The money being spent to ship clothes will almost always go a hell of a lot further in the local market than the value of the products that are used to send. Yes, people are incredibly grateful for clothes: but in many cases they would be more grateful for blankets, or sanitary towels, or medicine.

If there are no local markets available to them, which is very rarely the case but may be in some instances - for example the many Palestinian refugees trapped in Yarmouk camp in Syria - then they will be so cut off the clothes wouldn't get through either.

If money is donated to reputable charities who can source clothes and other goods locally, then there's a much higher likelihood everything provided will be useful. In your situation, I think selling the clothes in the UK and then sending the money would be much much more effective.There is no doubt in my mind the 7 thousand pounds could be used in a more effective way than providing the quantity of second hand clothes its likely to ship - not meant to belittle the efforts of those who donated, but being realistic about it.

For those who are saying they want to send clothes because they don't know where the money will end up - well, ultimately, you don't know where the clothes will end up, so you either make the decision to give, having done lots of checks, or you don't. There is a lot of monitoring of the charity sector these days, especially organisations funded by the DEC. Fears of corruption in my experience are overblown, certainly when it comes to money filtered through British aid agencies.

verence thank you for your post. A lot of what you have said is what sparked my initial doubts about the wisdom of doing this at all, and I still have the same feelings. £7,000 is a lot of money to ship the items, and this is the cost per lorry, so the total will be much greater.
However I also have the same number of boxes booked in to continue their journey and I will be sending them.
For those who thought I should have sent the original manky coat I am happy to say its place has now been taken by a clean, equally warm coat. All the spaces in the boxes left by items I discarded have now been filled again, because as Hakluyt said, people are always willing to give clothing.

You are right verence.

There's a reason why none of the big aid agencies or the Disasters Emergency Committee never ask for second-hand goods to send directly. It's because they have years of experience working on the ground and through their local partners, through which they know that there are more efficient and effective ways to get aid through to the people who need it.

Sorry, I meant *ever

rallytog agreed. I looked on the website of the charity DH used to work for and they no longer ask for clothes to distribute, even though 10 years ago it was a massive part of their work.