Gifts in Kind
Sentebale's policy for gifts in kind such as clothes, food, books and equipment
Many people are kind enough to offer us donations of things like clothes, food, books and equipment for export to Lesotho.
We regret that we are unable to accept donations of this kind. This is because we have a policy of buying locally for the following reasons:
1. Buying locally is faster, cheaper, and more environmentally friendly as it removes the need to collect, pack up and ship by sea or air the donated supplies, thus saving money and minimising our carbon footprint. Most items can be purchased locally by projects themselves, or by the country team who can get VAT back on purchases.
2. Local purchasing increases accountability, by giving responsibility to each project team to buy effectively and efficiently culturally appropriate items they will definitely use. We prefer to offer financial assistance to our partners to enable them to purchase their own supplies against an agreed plan. Projects then also have the responsibility for providing feedback to donors.
3. Local purchasing helps the local economy.
If you do have items that you wish to donate, we can put you in touch
with some organisations that collect and send donations in kind to Lesotho, but
we cannot arrange or pay for transport and collection costs for the above
reasons.
If you wish to help supply much needed equipment to Sentebale projects please consider supporting our policy of buying locally by making a donation: we have a list of all our partners and their needs which you can choose from.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with further enquiries.
© Sentebale 2007
