The Karishma Project seeks to decentralize structures of power, and to use our privilege to distribute resources to those who need it the most.
Our mission is to use our privilege, as college students or members of the community, and the platform we have to impact structures of power that govern our lives.
Our goal, executed through community oriented projects, is to decentralize local systems of power through making aid and resources accessible to communities who need them the most.
Information on each project can be found below; check out our projects page for more details!
Current Projects
The Self Expression Project.
A portion of landfill waste is comprised of discarded clothing, exemplified in college campuses. We wanted to disrupt that cycle and redistribute clothing/accessories/equipment to community members in need.
We organize and facilitate UC Berkeley wide/city wide clothing drives, drop offs, and pick up clothing that would have been thrown away around Berkeley. After processing donations and organizing them by type, we hold bi-weekly to monthly free “store” where members of the community can “browse” through items that are organized similar to a storefront.
To date we have redistributed over 1,000 items through community stores in Peoples Park, Berkeley. In doing so, anyone from the community can get good quality clothing and other items like camping equipment and blankets, and winter gear. A surprising aspect of the community’s feedback has been the positive feelings expressed after having the choice of physical self-expression after being able to select between all types, colors, and sizes of clothing.
Care Packages Projects.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of mutual aid more than ever. With this project, our goal is to implore that learning, as we accomplish our main goal of redistributing aid to individuals who need them the most.
We initially started making care packages with food, water, snacks, art supplies, and toiletries. After we packaged the items into reusable bags, we distributed them to individuals in the Berkeley community. We discussed with members of the houseless communities in Berkeley, to make a list of items that are most needed, beneficial, and needed. We were able to source these items through resource drives and drop offs which allowed optimize items in each package.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, we discussed with members from the community about what additional items would be helpful in the quarantine. Since 2020, we have been giving COVID care packages which contain the same items from a regular care package with the following added items: disposable masks, hand sanitizer, sanitizing wipes, gloves, choice of books, and reusable face masks.
Little Free Library Project.
We are currently raising money to build and place a little free library in Berkeley. Our goal is to put a free library in the Berkeley community so that more will have access to a variety of reading material.
We already have a large stock of donated books, some which we have already have individually distributed around the Berkeley community. We also have an approved location to install the library in the city of Berkeley, but we currently need donations in order to build the little free library in a sturdy and all weather manner.
If you are interested in contributing to the little free library project you can follow the link below!