Saudi women to hold garage sale for charity

Saudi female volunteers are launching their seventh annual garage sale this week, the proceeds of which will go to Al-Eman Cancer Society in Jeddah. The two-day event, which will start on Wednesday, will be hosted by Niveen Linjawi at her residence. Linjawi came up with the idea of a garage sale in 2007 when she stood wondering in her room what to do with all old and unused items in her house.
“It took us around three months to organize and announce the first garage sale back in 2007; it then quickly became an annual charity event held every year at my house,” said Lingawi. “We are all driven by passion to help people in need. We believe that this is a creative way to help women clean their closets while others benefit from it,” she added.
A garage sale is usually held when a family is moving from one house to another or from one city to another. The sale is held to raise money for the decor of their new home. Everything is sold, including television sets, computers, furniture, beddings, clothes and other personal items.
Linjawi's garage sale, however, is different in that it sells expensive items to women only to help raise money for charity.
On sale is a second hand collection that includes designer handbags, sunglasses, books, magazines, toys, CDs, women and home accessories. The annual garage sale has garnered a lot of attention in the past and is now an awaited event every year.
Linjawi and her friends have compiled a set of rules and regulations of how, when and why they should host such an event.
According to Linjawi, most Saudi women clean their houses, renovate or redecorate it almost every year and they don’t know what to do with some of the items and wish to get rid of them. That is where the garage sale comes in, she said.
“Some women donate stuff to charity organizations or needy individuals who don’t know what to do with the donated items, or they don’t even need them,” she said. “What they need is different from what is donated, and this is how we thought of the idea of a garage sale," she added.
Lamia Al-Yafi, coordinator at the garage sale, said that they are introducing Saudi society to a new concept that is very common outside the Kingdom.
“We faced many obstacles when we first started this project because people in Saudi Arabia were not familiar with such events. However, now people are more open to it, are participating in it and they are loving it,” she said.