Profile of the Organizations:

About GOONJ:

GOONJ.. is providing clothes & other basic amenities to millions in the far-flung villages by
turning urban wastage into a resource for rural India.
Company Overview
“ Making clothing a matter of concern..”

A unique resource mobilization initiative providing clothes and other basic amenities to
millions in the far-flung villages by turning one’s wastage into a resource for another.
Initiated in 1998 with just 67 clothes, they now send out 80 to 100 tonnes of material every
month , in 21 states of India. A force of over 300 volunteers, GOONJ is implementing its
various initiatives through over 150 grassroot organisations, panchayats, Ashoka fellows &
social activists in parts of 20 states of the country. GOONJ has recently been awarded the
'Indian NGO of the year' award for its governance and practices.

Knowing GOONJ..

 The first to- Highlight clothing as a basic but unaddressed need which deserves a
place on the development agenda.
 The first to- Reposition discard of urban households as a development resource for
villages, moving away from its age old stance as a charitable object.
 One of the few- organizations in the world, constructively reviving and strengthening
rural volunteerism, to solve its own problems, digging deep into the age old wisdom
and knowledge base of the villages.
 Goonj’s sanitary pad – is probably the world’s cheapest pad, since it’s made from
shreds of un-wearable cotton cloth collected from cities, washed, dried in sunlight and
then made into a pad that most village women are familiar with.
 GOONJ has the rare distinction- of an equally vast reach among the masses in the
villages as well as the cities across India.

Impact & Innovation

 Annually reach out over 1000 tones of material; from clothes, school material to old
doors, windows and computers.
 Over 900 development activities taken up under Cloth for work (CFW), in the last
2 years. From repairing roads to recharging water ponds, building bamboo bridges to
digging well; people only received clothes & other material as reward.
 Large scale relief & rehabilitation work with many innovative rural income
generation initiatives like Sujni making, Vaapsi, Village Hats (village markets),
tailoring cum women’s adult education centers, school bag making units implemented
in major disasters hits villages, with direct impact on stopping migration to cities.
 After Bihar floods in 2008, reached about 1500 tones of material in two years to over
200 remote villages.

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  Over 2 million sanitary pads produced out of waste cloth & reached to
villages/slums across India as a viable solution & powerful tool to open up taboo
subject of menses!!
 Over 2,00,000 Kgs of throw away waste cloth converted into traditional
mattress/quilt (Sujni) as large scale income generation activity in villages.

Systemic changes

 Instead of disaster based sporadic collections, Goonj has built a culture of regular
giving.
 Goonj’s sanitary pad work is highlighting important linkages e.g. between RCH,
cervical cancer and many other related women issues with menses, opening up
aspects of life usually thought too private or dangerous to make public.
 The Cloth for Work is enabling communities to confront their realities,
encouraging them into action.
 Addressing ignored needs; GOONJ’s material is addressing gap areas in the work of
other development agencies.
 Freeing up of meager resources; When GOONJ reaches cloth through its
programmes, larger value addition is basic economic development afforded to the
individual because the money he would have otherwise spent on buying clothes is
now freed up to fulfill more critical needs of food or health etc.

Cost effective

Annual budget; approx INR 3.5 crore (about half a million USD)

It includes-

 Idea advocacy
 Communication, collection, all logistics, rigorous processing, need based
dispatches to remote parts of the country
 Values add in tones of waste material.Preventing material from becoming an
environmental disaster in landfills.
 Capacity building of hundreds of organizations and million of people.
 Opening up many hidden/ignored/taboo subjects.
 Building up a movement with large scale civic participation in urban and rural India.
 Village level employment especially for women.
 A fulfilling full-time job to 150 people & a large scale infrastructure works in the
villages, saving millions of rupees by using this material as a reward!!
 No expenses on advertising
 Involves stakeholders and get subsidized cost on transportation, printing.
 No expenditure on setting up the infrastructure. Right from table, chairs, computers,
office stationary comes from individuals & institution

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Their ethos, beliefs, values

 To grow as an idea, not just as an organization.

 They are not in the business of collecting and distributing of old clothes. They
use material as a tool to bring ignored issues to light, to talk about basic needs, to
bring communities together, to make them aware of their own power, to increase
people’s participation, to change mindsets and change the present rural infrastructure..
 They don’t fix up targets, they value potential.
 They don’t promote charity; they are converting the age old charitable act of giving
clothes into a development resource.
 They are not focused on donor’s pride; they work is focused on the receiver’s
dignity.
 When people say we want to donate clothes- they strongly feel that after using as per
their need they don’t donate, they actually discard!
 They don’t want to keep their ideas to themselves, they want replication in different
regions, different economies. They are developing a replication kit with a title –
“We are giving you a copy right to copy our idea.”
 They strongly believe in the wisdom of people they are working for, to find
solutions to their own problems; it’s our core strength..
 They don’t spend money on their own infrastructure, furniture etc. They
practice what they promote i.e. use of old material. No spending on advertising &
PR; positive word of mouth is their biggest asset.
 They don’t try to do everything on their own and use the strength of various
partners/people as stake holders!

There focus

In the race of development they all are too focused on machines i.e. the big, known issues
and are ignoring the needles the most important small parts i.e. issues. They talk about
holistic development of human kind without thinking about the basic need of clothing.

At GOONJ there focus is these needles.- With a large scale civic participation it is not
only becoming a big people’s movement for progress but is also creating a parallel
economy where every work doesn’t have to wait for money; huge quantities of old re-
usable material becomes a valuable resource.

Goonj is reaching parts of 21 states in partnerships with over 250 grassroots

organizations, Ashoka Fellows, social activists, units of Indian army & social movements.
Apart from thousands of volunteers all across, Goonj has a formal team of 150 people with 9
offices across India.

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Recognitions to GOONJ:

 2012: Global Development Awards and Medals Competition (AMC) for ‘Most
Innovative Development Project’
 2012: Edelgive Award for health & well being
 2010: Forbes listed Mr. Anshu Gupta, Founder Director, GOONJ as one of India’s
most powerful entrepreneurs.
 2010: Innovation for India Award by marico.
 2010: Jamnalal Bajaj CFBP Award.
 2009: Lien i3 Challenge Award for ‘Cloth for Work’.
 2009: Ashoka’s Changemakers Innovation Award for ‘Not just piece of cloth’.
 2009: CNN IBN’s ‘Real Heroes Award’ to founder GOONJ..
 2008: ‘India NGO of the Year’ Award.
 2007: World Bank’s Global DM Award for NJPC.
 2007: Recognized as one of ‘The Good Practices’ in Dubai International Awards
 2006: Changemakers Innovation Awards, for ‘Rahat’.
 2004: Ashoka Fellowship to Mr. Anshu Gupta.
 2004: Changemakers Innovation Awards for ‘School to School’.

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Their initiative…..

Cloth For Work (CFW)

The idea; When they talk of basic needs, they say food, cloth & shelter, but in the list of
development subjects which has more than 100 -150 issues; from domestic violence to global
warming, clothing is not listed as a subject. We think of clothes during disasters only. Why a
basic need of entire human kind is treated as disaster relief material? Why do we treat Cloth
as mere charitable object- to donate!!
GOONJ is using under utilised cloth & other old material as a powerful & proven tool for
social change, huge resource for rural/slum development & a valuable asset for income
generation.

Worldwide when we think of resources for any kind of development work, we think of
money. Goonj works on turning old material as a resource for hundreds of rural development
activities. Communities have built huge bamboo bridges, dug up wells, have done bunding of
acres of land, developed small irrigation canals, have built drainage systems, built village
schools and have taken up massive exercises of repairing roads, developing water harvesting
systems to cleaning up water bodies. All these works are done not by paying wages to
people but by making them understand their own community power, using old material as a
reward. GOONJ is using material from the cities as an entry point into people’s lives. This is
a work where not only the old underutilized material fills up the gaps of resources in
development works but is also dignifying the act of Giving, now thousands of people don’t
get material as charity or donation but earn as reward in lieu of their work. Here are the
glimpses of development works;

How do they facilitate this; Together with our grassroots partner groups working among
village communities they facilitate discussions and debate around the local issues and
possible developmental activities. These are small but important day to day problems, faced
by the villagers, whether it’s a dirty patch surrounding the local school compound, or a
broken road, or clogged drainage system or repairing kilometres of road or working across
water bodies, or making a bamboo bridge etc., which are taken up by people with full
enthusiasm and it creates a significant impact in their daily lives. The recepients play an
active role in the thought process, its detailing, what, how,where and when, thus taking the
ownership of the work done by them.

Material is used as a tool here and not just as a commodity only; thus, nurturing village
people’s thought process, knowledge and empowering them to evolve innovative solutions
around the local issues. On a macro level, GOONJ’s work is also setting a precedent in terms
of preventing massive material wastage from becoming an environment disaster.

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Not just a piece of Cloth (NJPC)

The Problem;

Women are the most marginalized in the 72% of India’s population living in rural areas.
Given the poor economic status of a vast mass, a sanitary pad for the essential biological
process of menses is the last thing on the mind of most. They end up using all kinds of rags
leading to widespread unhealthy practices during menses. The shame & silence associated
with the issue makes it the most taboo subject even among women, as a vast majority face
great hardships & indignity, besides health risks due to this problem.

MY Pad cloth sanitary Pads, a viable solution by GOONJ; Since 2004-05, GOONJ.. is
working on the issue of menstrual hygiene by initiating discussions at various national &
international forums & providing a viable solution with cloth sanitary pads. GOONJ’s ‘Not
Just a Piece of Cloth’ (NJPC)initiative starts with providing a physical product but
stresses more on long term change in practices, behavior change, education &
replication. Developed with indigenous processes, out of old cloth collected from urban
masses the clean cloth pad is provided at a cost of just ….. each while they also teach the user
women to make it on their own.

What makes the idea of clean cloth napkins successful is its simplicity and familiarity to the
beneficiaries. Instead of trying to introduce a new product or a new design, it’s an
improvisation and mass scale replication of the existing usage patterns/practices. We are
simply removing the risk elements of the existing practice, improving upon and doing a lot of
value addition in terms of cleanliness and awareness. Given their strength of a nationwide
network and their experience and expertise in mass scale management of old cloth,
replication is possible on a wide scale making it cheaper, more acceptable and faster for
the beneficiaries. The environmental dimension also plays a critical role in their thought
process. Some of the products now in the market are not biodegradable Thankfully given the
price they don’t have a very big reach, especially among rural women. GOONJ is trying to
address this vast majority to offer them a more appropriate option, preventing the bigger
environmental problem of disposal in the process.

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School to School (S2S)

The Problem; A small village school’s needs are very basic. Normally students don’t even
have a pencil or copy to write on and a bag, school uniform, mats for sitting etc. are distant
dreams. Scores of children leave schools for unimaginably petty reasons like lack of a water
bottle or inability of parents to pay the recurring expense of a note book, things easily
channelised from underutilized material in the cities.

What they do; ‘School to School’ is a unique solution to a problem faced by thousands of
remote village schools, which lack infrastructure and basic facilities, critical for a child to
have basic experience of schooling. GOONJ’s School to School (S2S) initiative is
addressing the educational needs of thousands of remote & resource starved village/
slum schools by channelizing under-utilised material of city’s affluent schools. While
connecting the two extreme ends of the society, it opens a space of interaction between the
two as well. Without burdening anyone, ‘School to School’ makes channel cost-effective and
easily replicable concept, evolved on the basis of prevalent practices in urban schools.

The Process & Social Impact; The idea is to motivate urban school kids to contribute the
material that they are not using anymore, as every year most children buy a new set of
uniforms, copies, stationery, water bottles, shoes, lunch box etc. when they move on to the
next class. The urban children, parents & school authorities are sensitized about the needs of
their less fortunate counterparts; Materials like old books, uniforms, shoes, school bags, etc.
are channelised to thousands of village children, motivating them towards learning. It is not
given as charity, but as a reward after a regular monitoring on a series of behavior, attitude,
and performance aspects.

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Rahat
The problem; With the term disaster, we think of floods, earthquakes, tsunami, cyclone. But
there are some ignored disasters which happen around us every year and yet they don’t get
termed as disasters. Isn’t winter an annual disaster for a person who doesn’t have adequate
shelter and clothing. Millions of people still don’t get two square meals a day or Lakhs of
women face indignity due to lack of clean cloth during menses; for them buying enough cloth
or woolens for their families is certainly out of question

The idea and innovation; Over the last 14 years Goonj has built a reliable and time-tested
network in both the rural & urban areas. This network means our wide spread presence,
which helps us respond to any kind of geographical and cultural aspect. With an active
network in place, our response time for generating & channelising resources becomes much
quicker. Despite being a small team, they have been able to respond to disasters as wide apart
as Kashmir and Tamil Nadu, with the same amount of urgency and scale. They work
throughout the year on educating the common masses about the sensitivities of giving at the
time of disasters i.e. how one should understand the cultural, social, geographical aspects
before deciding what to give. Like women in south India don’t wear suits while women in
Kashmir don’t wear saris or eating habits-people in Gujarat don’t eat rice much while in
Kashmir rice is a part of the staple diet. Sensitivities towards these aspects have a big impact
at the time of material generation.

What they do: In rural India GOONJ has successfully built a network of reliable grassroots
organizations like Panchayats, NGO’s, activists. In the metros they have a similar network of
individuals, corporate, schools, collages and other organizations working actively throughout
the year to channelize unutilized resources lying waste in the cities to the rural areas. At the
time of disasters this strong urban and rural network is activated intensely to address the
needs of the victims in a focused manner. This helps address specific needs for the disaster
hit, without burdening any single organization/individual. On the other hand their partner
grassroots agencies give us an accurate assessment of the damage and the needs of the
disaster hit people. They become the critical last leg in the distribution chain and as part of
the community, sensitively deal with the issue of giving with dignity. With years of
continuous work this network helps us gather intelligence and information about disaster
patterns and in disaster preparedness, in terms of generating and reaching relief material to
disaster prone areas well in time.

Rahat Floods; In monsoons parts of India are prone to floods, so they start their RAHAT
Floods campaign before monsoons so that the material reaches these areas quickly.

Rahat Winters; Over the last 14 years their efforts in highlighting winters as an annual
disaster has started getting attention by policy makers, media and citizens of the country. The
increasing awareness has lead to independent collections and distribution of woolens in the
cities during winters by many organizations, individuals etc. Also, before winters goes off,
they do another massive campaigning around ‘Don’t overburden your wardrobes with
woolens that you may not need for next winters’.

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Impact; Although their network does not cover the entire geographical area of India but in
the event of a disaster the extended network of their local partners is a great help. When
Kashmir was hit by an earthquake, their relationship with the Indian army helped them reach
the worst affected areas very quickly as they passed on contacts of local officials, helped
them in transporting material and asked their officials to contact them. The Army gave them
information about the damage and needs, gave them security in the sensitive and far flung
areas. They were able to get a first hand account of the state of affairs and assess and identify
their role in the relief operations.

What they need; Disaster is a time of complete breakdown at the individual and community
level therefore collaborations and cooperation’s are needed in every sphere. They need strong
linkages and commitments for specific items. They want corporations and investors to help
them form linkages in specific important industries like airlines and transport industry, food
and pharma industry. They need foundations and NGO’s having an expertise in areas with
difficult access like Kashmir, north eastern India where they can act as their eyes, ears and
hands. They need big schools and universities to work with them and activate their youth to
mobilize a national momentum around any disaster. They need more volunteers to spread
awareness, organise camps & sort material. They want Corporate in the travel, pharmacy,
housing, food, garments and media industry to get involved. For better disaster preparedness
they need infrastructure at their command which will help them in building a disaster reserve
of relief material reducing their response times drastically. In short, they need to scale up
their present network to spread wider and include more entities of the society.

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GOONJ’S TARGET

Is that the society mostly gives and gets involved at the time of a disaster but the fact is that a
majority of the population lives in such a condition that one need not wait for a disaster to
happen, to help them. Their emphasis is that one needs to actively work throughout the year
in disaster preparedness and resource generation, sensitising people on the needs and dignity
aspect, so that when the disaster actually happens, which could be anytime, they are able to
better respond and are able to lessen to a large extent the after effects of devastation.

PROBLEM FACED BY THEM DURING DEVELOPMENT WORK

 Increasing transport cost & rentals for storage space, vehicles.

 Technology; high-end laptops & computers to streamline data and systems.
 Documentation of knowledge, new idea and innovative approaches in our work, since
our inception.
 Mis-match in the supply of specific material like sarees (as no alternative for
traditional dress), children clothing, school material winter clothing & blankets etc..
 Financial Resources, retaining and nurturing our values and processes instead of
depending on typical investment models or funding agencies way!

SOURCES OF FUNDING FOR DEVELOPMENT WORK

Goonj works through large citizen base, growth owed to 1000s of volunteers who helped in
idea spread & financially. e.g: collecting old newspapers from people & raising funds
through its sale,getting one side used paper from corporates for making school notebooks &
writing pads for sale,asking urban women to give us one meter cloth every month when they
have menses for their rural counterparts, one rupee one cloth; motivating people to give us
one rupee with each cloth they give to cover cost of reaching it to the beneficiary.

Apart from individual contributions and sponsorships there are co-branded campaigns where
they charge the corporates.

There is a large range of beautiful products from bags to conference kits to sanitary pads they
sell and generate money .

The operations are based on usage of second hand material right from packing bags to our
furniture which reduces the cost drastically.

As a basic thought the work is not dependent on agencies and government and they have
worked on multiple sources to sustain it and to grow.

They are also tying up with the logistics companies to further reduce the costs and targeting
organizations working on health as their major buyers.

As an NGO (non-government organisation), they do not receive any direct government

funding allowing them to remain independent, making unbiased evaluations of
government policies and programmes. The government has also extended certain tax
and duty exemptions to them, enabling us minimise costs.

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Who they are

"Save the Children is often told that its aims are impossible – that there has
always been child suffering and there always will be. We know. It's
impossible only if we make it so. It’s impossible only if we refuse to attempt
it."
- Eglantyne Jebb (Founder Save the Children)

Save the Children is an international organisation working for children's rights in

120 countries. In India, they are working across 13 states to ensure that every
child has a happy and healthy childhood.

They are determined to build a world in which every child attains the right to
survival, protection, development and participation.

They not only save children from the hardships of life, but they also work
towards abolishing these hardships.

Save the children targets-

Save the Children is the leading independent organization creating lasting change
in the lives of children in need around the world. Recognized for their
commitment to accountability, innovation and collaboration, their work takes
them into the heart of communities, where they help children and families help
themselves. They work with other organizations, governments, non-profits and a
variety of local partners while maintaining their own independence without
political agenda or religious orientation.

When disaster strikes around the world, Save the Children is there to save lives
with food, medical care and education and remains to help communities rebuild
through long-term recovery programs. As quickly and as effectively as Save the
Children responds to tsunamis and civil conflict, it works to resolve the ongoing

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 struggles children face every day — poverty, hunger, illiteracy and disease —
and replaces them with hope for the future.

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Mission & Vision Statement

Ninety years ago one woman, Eglantyne Jebb, started a worldwide movement. She was
driven by the belief that all children - whoever they are, wherever they are - have the right to
a healthy, happy & fulfilling life. And the belief that change is within reach, if they have
courage, determination, imagination and good organisation. They know change is possible.
Save the Children's experience in changing children's lives for the better in the past decades is
the foundation for what they do today and tomorrow to build a better future for children.

Mission Statement
To inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and
lasting change in their lives.

Our Vision
A world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and
participation.

THEIR INITIATIVE:

Child Protection

The Child Protection Programme is a core sector of their work. They utilize a
child rights programming framework and keep in mind the cross-cutting themes
of child participation, non-discrimination and best interests of children. here
child protection work focuses on three key “evidence” groups:
1. Children affected by disasters/emergencies and conflict, including Disaster
Risk Reduction.
2. Exploitation & child trafficking
3. Children in the worst forms of labour and children with inadequate parental
care including alternatives to institutional care.

Understanding good and best practices in care and protection is a major focus of
their programme work. This requires quality monitoring and evaluation (research
& studies) in order to identify good practices in documentation and sharing of
this evidence. Some of the most important activities of our Child Protection
programme include:

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 Improving the understanding of the situation of vulnerable children in need of
care and protection.

Building children's resilience and supporting their participation in their own

protection, including child-led organisations and child-to-child support.

Promoting diversion from inappropriate or punitive responses and encouraging

the reintegration of children who have been stigmatised because of their coping
strategies in the absence of effective protection mechanisms.

Demonstrating the benefits of preventative approaches and early intervention

over interventions at a later stage.

Supporting the development of community-based care and protection systems.

Support to the co-ordination and integration of services and support to vulnerable

children.

Encouraging moves away from services directed towards particular problems

towards services addressed to supporting the functioning and coping strategies of
children and families.

Building the care and protection of children into broader social welfare, poverty
reduction and other national development strategies.

Building the capacity of duty bearers to deliver effective care and protection.

Advocating for legal and policy reform in line with the principles and standards
of the Child Rights For Change and other relevant international and regional
instruments.

Some sub-initiative areas follows:

Child Labour

India is home to close to 13 million children child labourers under 14 (Census

2001). Their aim is to make child labour socially and culturally unacceptable.
They work with state authorities & civil society organisations to free children
engaged in labour and working to withdraw 50,000 child domestic workers
from domestic help. They have been instrumental in the creation of a national
child protection system.

Currently they are working across 2000 villages in 9 states of India to remove
children from exploitative working conditions and rehabilitate them and
support their education. Along with their action to remove children from
exploitative working situations, they mobilize public opinion and demand
policy and legislative action to abolish child labour in all its forms.

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 Child Participation

They provide opportunities and spaces for children to participate on issues which
affect their life. Child participation is not a means to achieve project objectives, it
is a right of these children. They listen to their views and learn from them. They
promote meaningful and ethical child participation; this is an integral part of all
their programmes across states.

Child Trafficking

There is a close link between child labour and child trafficking. However, so far
almost all anti trafficking work is largely limited to child trafficking for
commercial sex exploitation. However our experience and evidence from the
field suggests that a large number of children are being trafficked for labour. The
incidence of child trafficking for labour is hugely under reported. They define
trafficking on line of Palermo Protocol.
Our approach to combat trafficking is based on the 3Ps strategy: Prevention,
Protection and Prosecution. They work both in source and demand areas with a
community based approach.

Corporal Punishment

The acceptance of daily punitive violence is symbolic of children’s status in our

societies as possessions. Save the Children challenges all forms of corporal
punishment, however light they may be. They believe that every child deserves
equal respect for their human dignity and physical integrity. They work towards
ending corporal punishment whether in schools or homes. It is not acceptable
whether it is exercised by teacher or parents. They sensitise and equip teachers
and parents in positive discipline techniques instead of punitive discipline.
Ending corporal punishment is an integral part of our inclusive education
programme and our protection programme across 10 states of India.

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 SOURCES OF FUNDING FOR DEVELOPMENT WORK

Save the children is an international

organization working for children’s right in
120 countries.

 They donot accept old things for their

ngos. They ask for financial help from
everyone who so ever wants to give
donate.

They raise their fund through

 Individuals
 Legacies
 Corporates
 Trusts
 Major Donors
 Community
 Retail
 Innovation

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 PROBLEMS FACED DURING DEVELOPMENT WORK

Like most networks, coalitions are vulnerable to divisions, such as

conflicts between members as a result of competition or lack of trust.
Personality conflicts, especially in leadership can also weaken the
network.
 Difficulty in sustaining the active interest and support of members, in
many instances as a result of member organizations not having an
expressly defined commitment to the coalition or because of competing
demands.
 Tensions may exist between the interest of individual members and that
of the coalition as a whole. If not managed well the two may come into
conflict or at least not be compatible.
 Often due to worthwhile but competing demands coalition work is not
always a top priority for some members. In such cases members are
unable or less inclined to commit the necessary resources for the
successful completion of tasks.
 Disparities in the size and influence of member organizations can also
lead to tensions within coalitions. Larger members that actively
participate generally have more resources and time to commit to the
coalitions, consequently their agenda become more dominant.
 Human right work, including child rights, attracts relatively little donor
support, consequently coalitions often have difficulty finding funding.
 Direct involvement of children is usually weak and minimal, due largely
to coalitions’ lack of information and experience on how to integrate
them in a meaningful way.

Another major problem remains raising of funds for various projects and
involving motivated volunteers.

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