Donating late fathers clothes abroad

socialchaos

I'm not sure if this would be the right thread for this.
My father has unfortunately recently passed away due to cancer. We are looking to do something nice in aid of cancer, in memory of my father and also we are looking at donating his belongings but didnt want to take the typical route. Myself and my partner are keen travellers and would like to do some country hopping once covid is over, though slowly over years as we lead a busy lifestyle.

We are looking to make a plan on where to find people in need on each leg of our journey. Would be helpful if we could find also the most efficient way to ship my father clothes etc. Before we land in each country as in sure it wont be efficient to take this on the plane as luggage.
The packages would include clothes, shoes, jewelry and after shaves.

Would also like to know if there are any companies which specialise in multi stop journeys. As mum is struggling living in our family home and being stuck in for months due to covid we have said the first thing we will do is take her to cape town, south africa. She has always wanted to visit and hopefully this will give her some headspace. If we can manage to pass a few countries along the way this would be a bonus.

The idea is to country by country pin this on the map, that way we can see exactly where in the world my fathers belongings are and they will be going to good use. Any help appreciated .

Thank you

[Deleted User]

 Just give them to your local charity shop 

socialchaos

_shel said:

 Just give them to your local charity shop 

Thanks for your advice. But that's not what I was asking 👍🏽

Mojisola

socialchaos said:

Myself and my partner are keen travellers and would like to do some country hopping once covid is over, though slowly over years as we lead a busy lifestyle.
Would be helpful if we could find also the most efficient way to ship my father clothes etc.

Just give the clothes away here to a charity and spend the money you would have spent on shipping the second-hand garments to the countries you visit to buy people new clothes.

shaun_from_Africa

socialchaos said:

The packages would include clothes, shoes, jewelry and after shaves.

I would suggest leaving those two items out, either giving them to a charity shop in the UK or selling them and then donating the money to a charity of your choice.
Aftershave is often classed as a flammable liquid and as such would be probably be prohibited from sending inside a consolidated shipment and both the jewellery and aftershave may well cause problems with customs when importing them into another country.

pramsay13

It sounds like a good idea in theory but I reckon in practice will be a nightmare logistically.
The only reason this can be done at all is people shipping large containers to single places. 
If you start trying to send packages to individual destinations it will cost thousands.
You would be better donating the clothes here and then maybe doing some fundraising in his memory.
Then either take the money with you and donate it each step of the way, or buy something useful locally like pens / pencils etc and donate them. 

NoodleDoodleMan

As above, not a practical exercise.

Best to approach a UK charity that specialises in helping humanitarian causes abroad.

Voyager2002

There are two aspects to this question: being practica; and doing something so that a little bit of your father persists in different countries. Addressing the second aspect: you can plan an international journey and take with you small amounts of 'relics' of your father. You mention South Africa: a good way to get there is using Ethiopian Airlines, who will include a free stop-over in Addis Ababa on the way back. If that is not enough for you, you can book a long stop-over there and buy a return ticket from Addis to more or less anywhere, getting back in good time to catch your flight back to the UK.

Needless to say, clothes that are suitable for a British winter would not be much use under African sunshine! And in fact many of the clothes that are given to charities here do end up in Africa: after sorting, those clothes that are unlikely to sell well in charity shops are sold to intermediaries who ship them by the container-load to African cities where they are sold by weight to vendors who make a living retailing them in local markets. That is why in most African cities you are likely to see people walking around in t-shirts advertising 'Nationwide' and other businesses that are unknown there.

Jewellery is appreciated more or less everywhere in the world. It is particularly prized in India where there are high import taxes, but you would be allowed to bring in small quantities in hand luggage for your personal use and then just give them away.

Shimrod

socialchaos said:

We are looking to make a plan on where to find people in need on each leg of our journey. Would be helpful if we could find also the most efficient way to ship my father clothes etc. Before we land in each country as in sure it wont be efficient to take this on the plane as luggage.
The packages would include clothes, shoes, jewelry and after shaves.

How do you identify someone as in need of jewelry or aftershave? As others have said, sell or donate and give the money to a charity which will be able to use the money much more effectively? It doesn't have to be one of the big charities - I have been involved with a small charity that works in Africa for a number of years - it has no paid employees in the UK so all the donations are used to help those in need.