Clothing swap at SUGS Gymnasium “Rade Jovchevski-Korchagin”

Clothing swaps are events where participants exchange their cherished but no longer used clothes for clothes they will use. The clothing exchange culture originated in 1994 in San Francisco, but our organization Go Green got the idea to hold this kind of event from our ESC volunteer from Germany. This event took place on December 28^th, 2023 at SUGS Gymnasium “Rade Jovchevski Korchagin”, but it was preceded by a series of preparations in which a large number of volunteers took an active role.

We had our first meeting surrounding this event on November 11^th, 2023, which was held in the premises of Go Green where we debated our ideas and goals that we strive to achieve, and divided the roles among the volunteers, so that everyone is involved. Each of the volunteers tried to help as much as they could. The second meeting was held on December 17^th through the ZOOM online platform, where we discussed our teamwork in the preparations and discussed our progress towards achieving the ultimate goal.

Although the project was of an internal nature, i.e. it was intended only for high school students, it received a lot of attention. This is shown by the large pile of clothes, to the creation of which the volunteers and students contributed, each wearing old clothes that they no longer need. A lot of attention was not expected, because unfortunately this type of events in our country are not popular among the youth, when in fact the opposite should be true, because it is not only an effective way to replenish the wardrobe, but also contributes to the reuse of clothes, which are in a completely stable state, instead of being thrown away. In addition to the environmental one, the event also performed a moral act, because the clothes that remained left out were donated for humanitarian purposes. Therefore, we can safely conclude that we must have helped someone who needed it with this event, especially in the cold winter days ahead.

The purpose of this event was to raise the environmental awareness of young people, even in an area that at first glance has nothing in common with ecology. By the fact that young people brought old clothes in exchange for others, they managed to prove to us that there are still conscious people who strive for multiple use of clothes and do not agree with the old-fashioned “I don’t wear it, so I’ll throw it away”. In this way, we make sure that there are young people who have the desire to build a community by supporting the so-called “circular” fashion in order to reduce clothing waste in landfills and save both money and nature. In addition, this event gave the volunteers a lot of positivity, because apart from having the opportunity to work as a team during the preparation and spend time socializing, they were also convinced that there are other peers who support their activity and would like to help. We believe that this event can be held in other high schools as well, if there is space for cooperation and if the students are interested in it, because with one small act a big step is taken, on an ecological and moral level.

Dela Dodevska