In November 2015, the youth parliament of Monheim am Rhein organized a highly successful clothing donation campaign at all local secondary schools.

Explaining the idea behind the appeal for donations, youth parliament member Nicole Maas said: “Young people have too many clothes they no longer wear, which are just lying around unworn in their wardrobes. We thought it would be great to donate them to help others.” The Monheim am Rhein youth parliament made the joint decision to launch a clothing donation campaign at all secondary schools in October 2015. The team were especially keen to collect autumn and winter clothes for young people, which are in particularly high demand now in the winter months. In fact, many donations don’t actually reach the German Red Cross until winter is over. This meant there were many people in need who didn’t have suitable clothing to keep them warm. With this in mind, the young parliamentarians heavily advertised the two-day collection campaign by making plenty of announcements at their schools. The youth parliament then sorted the clothes by size and gender, before presenting some 25 sacks of clothing to the German Red Cross in December 2015. Following this initial success, the JuPa members were already planning their next clothing donation campaign for the following spring. Next time they would be asking the secondary schools to prioritize clothes for babies as well as young men, because these were in particularly short supply!