Madhira man reaches out to needy, provides them clothes

Serving as a health supervisor at Denduru PHC in Mahira mandal, Lanka Kondaiah has established an organization, Mahatma Gandhi Free Old Clothes Centre under the aegis of his Lanka Seva Foundation to do his part for the benefit of the poor

Khammam: Drawing inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi and caring for the poor as well as underprivileged sections, a man in Madhira has been providing them with a basic need, clothing. Serving as a health supervisor at Denduru PHC in Mahira mandal, Lanka Kondaiah has established an organization, Mahatma Gandhi Free Old Clothes Centre under the aegis of his Lanka Seva Foundation to do his part for the benefit of the poor.

He said he established the centre after watching a poor Odisha man with worn out clothes in desperate need for clothes after he fell down from a moving train some years ago. He informed that he set up the centre in 2012 and since then over 3,000 poor families have been provided clothes. Speaking to Telangana Today Kondaiah informed that he along with his son Shyam Kumar and daughter Karuna Liyona collects old clothes, like sarees, pants, shirts, t-shirts and bed sheets from the donors in free time.

---

Often donors visit his house at Azad road in Madhira to donate clothes.

The collected clothes would be distributed to migratory families, labourers, construction workers, unemployed youth and poor students free of cost. The clothes have also been distributed to families affected by floods or cyclonic rains, he said. Kondaiah said sometimes they get clothes in damaged condition and they would be stitched with the help of his wife, working as an ANM, Sandhya to make them usable before distributing them to the needy. He is also striving for environmental conservation by distributing cloth bags to people.

He said when they get torn out bed-sheets they would be made into cloth bags for carrying vegetables and groceries. The cloth bags would be distributed to residents in Madhira and other places to replace them with plastic carry bags in order to prevent plastic pollution. Kondaiah informed that he has been distributing old clothes to the needy in Khammam, Kothagudem, erstwhile Warangal, Nalgonda and others in Telangana besides Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh.

In recognition of his social work, Kondaiah received the Best Social Worker Award in 2018 from Mother Foundation of Hyderabad. He was presented the award by former AP CM K Rosaiah. “Providing clothing to the poor gives us immense satisfaction” he added.