Online portal allows those in need to find household items for free

[gallery size="medium" td_select_gallery_slide="slide" td_gallery_title_input="Online portal allows those in need to find household items for free" ids="112316,112317,112319,112318,112320"] By Hanan Alnufaie TRADITIONALLY, when people from low-income backgrounds needed help, they sought the assistance of charity organizations in the Kingdom. However, for many, especially those facing extraordinary financial circumstances, there is great stigma attached with seeking the help of charities and so they usually don’t. This is where Khaled Mohammed Al-Mutlaq comes in. A pharmacist by profession, Al-Mutlaq recognized that there should be a way to give people in need a certain amount of anonymity when seeking help. So, he created www.freethingstogo.com, an online portal where anyone in need can find common households items for free while completely bypassing the need to approach a charity. Set up with the help of family members, the site allows people to donate anything from furniture, common household electrical appliances to clothes. Speaking about the initiative, Al-Mutlaq said the primary goal of the website is to gather donors and those in need in one place. For recipients, the site allows them to easily and with relative anonymity acquire essential items they need. “If there is a person who doesn’t need a refrigerator, he or she can go to our website, select their country and city, and post a picture of the item and their contact information. People can then contact them directly. Similarly, if there is a person who needs a refrigerator and cannot afford it, he or she just needs to visit the site and directly contact the donor,” he explained. Currently, the website is accessible to people in Arab and North African countries but Al-Mutlaq said there are plans to include Turkey, Pakistan and Indonesia. “We plan on expanding soon. One of the features of the site is that it allows people to select the country and city they are in. So, people choose the nearest contact to them. There is no need for shipping anything; people in Riyadh can help others who live in Riyadh. So it saves money, effort and time,” he said. One unique and perhaps one of the best features of the site is that it allows people to “donate” their time and services for a good cause. For example, someone with a pickup truck can offer to pick up and drop a donated item off if the recipient is unable to arrange transportation. “This feature is voluntary as well and it is for people who want their deeds to be rewarded by Allah. Some donors offer delivery while others cannot. So, this is where people who have the time and big enough cars come in. They deliver the items and thereby become an integral part of the whole process,” he explained. When asked about the quality of the donated items, Al-Mutlaq said most are good quality and that users are asked to donate working and undamaged goods. “In general, the items are of very good quality. Many of the individuals and families donate new furniture pieces because they want to buy newer ones or because they just don’t like the color. We even had a donor who put a post of an item he did not want. Then, when he visited the family in need, he decided to buy them any new furniture items they wanted. So it differs from one donor to the other,” he said. “Thanks to Allah Almighty, people are interacting very well with us and with the concept of the website. We just started six weeks ago, and we have completely furnished three houses through the website. What I see is that the initiative has been warmly welcomed and is quickly gaining track in Saudi society,” he added. As for future plans, Al-Mutlaq said he wants to run a winter clothing drive through the site next year, launch an initiative to help newly-married young men furnish their homes and help students with stationery and other items they may need for the upcoming spring semester. “We are planning to distribute winter clothing items across the Kingdom by next winter. We also have serious plans of helping and furnishing young men’s apartments before they get married. We are also looking into ways of helping students by giving them prepared schoolbags with school supplies for the next semester. Last but not least, we will add more phone numbers, so people who lack knowledge of using technology or the website from both sides can contact us on WhatsApp and we will facilitate everything for them,” he said.