Stop the Dump

A lot of exchangers and other internationals will come and visit your country for a certain period and will not remain living there. Most of them will either stay for one semester or for an entire year. When they arrive they have to buy a lot of brand new stuff. A lot of these goods are normally used for longer than the period they will be staying in your country.

Whenever they leave they tend to get rid of the stuff the most convenient way: in the trashbin. ESN Maastricht therefore set up ‘Stop the dump’ to make sure usable goods can get a second life for new exchangers or the less fortunate of society.
At this moment we are only collecting in the central guesthouse. They donated a room for us to store the goods until the second hand store comes and picks it up. The room is open 24/7. Collection revolves around the departure days of the students.

Collection Dates

The Guesthouse provides us with specific detail on when students are leaving. For the general population this is:
·          The week prior to Christmas. Exchangers from the first semester will leave (end of block 2). 
·         The last week of January. The exchangers that did an extra block in addition to the first semester leave (end of block 3).
·         The first week of June. The exchangers of semester two leave (end of block 5).
·         The first week of July. The exchangers that did an extra block in addition to the second semester leave. On top of this most of the students that stayed a year are leaving (end of block 6)

Collection of goods

The goods will be sorted by ESN's board and active members. They will go to the guesthouse on days when a lot of students leave to make sure everything is stored properly. The storage room is marked by a poster of stop the dump. A basic example can be found to the left.
 
After having sorted out the supplies the ESN board- or active member informs the project coordinator. He/she will keep track of the amount of goods. Whenever there are sufficient goods he/she will inform the second hand store. 

Future exchangers

ESN has searched for possibilities to eventually get useful stuff back to exchange students who need the supplies. Not every exchange student has enough money to buy everything for themselves.
 
However, the estimation is that a large proportion of the goods will not be collected by new students. Our wish is to donate these goods to those who need it. At this point we do not have a room for this however and thus we will keep you posted on how we will facilitate this in the future.