Guest blogger - Amin Maaz

A few weeks ago, Amin from the company Flexibla traveled to Sudan and visited the orphanage. As we have previously informed you, Flexibla raised a generous amount of money to support I Care, and this is his story of the experience:

After a long day of shopping and buying diapers, powder milk, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soup, washing powder, rice and a lot of other things for the orphanage we finally arrive at the orphanage with a car filled with so many grocery bags, they were sticking out of the windows. We parked the car just outside the gates and as soon as the children saw me standing there with three footballs in my hands and all the things in the car behind me, their eyes lit up with happiness.

I felt an indescribable feeling of joy as the kids started running towards me and I let go off the footballs.
The children, being overwhelmed with excitement, all wanted to say hi and see what we brought. Their excitement was so intense that I even felt the need to close the gates a bit to keep them from running out into the streets.
The children proceeded to grab as many of the things we bought as they could cary and showed me the way into the orphanage. As I entered the orphanage I looked around and noted that the place was not in good condition. It felt extremely hot and everything inside was dark as the electricity was gone and there weren't any windows to let some light in.
As I walked around I noticed a few other children that were lying on the ground, they were too disabled to play with the other kids and I saw how they were stretching their necks out to see what was going on.
I walked passed one child who stretched his hand out and grabbed my ankle. I looked down at him and sat down on the ground next to him. With the biggest smile on his face he said "Mister, Mister... Thank you" over and over again.

I brought out my camera to capture this moment when suddenly one of the workers walked up to me and asked me to stop. I asked her why and she said " it doesn't look good that he's laying on the ground like that, Let me pick him up and wash him and put on some better close before you take a picture". I tried to explain that it was okay and that she didn't have to do that, but she insisted. As the day went on I noticed that she did the same thing with all the children. My intention was to capture reality with my camera and they wouldn't let me.I walked over to a friend who lives in Sudan and therefore knows the way things work. I asked him why they did that. He said that their mentality is like that. They see the kids as their own and don't want the rest of the world to see them in a compromising state, they feel embarrassed over it.After that I went around and played with the kids and they were just so happy to see a grown man there to see them and to play with them. All of them wanted to high five me and shake my hand and just wanted my attention. It felt like it was a real treat for them to receive all these gifts we brought them and to have an older "boy" there to play with them.We bought a lot of things and it felt good but leaving there I couldn't help to wish I could do more for them. I wanted to fix the whole place up, bring all the kids new clothes instead of the rags they were wearing, more books and pens and for their incredible small library, paint the whole place instead of the sand/dirt walls they had, replace the beds, have them engage in more activities. The list of things to do for these children is endless and I could go on forever.
The feeling I am left with is that I just wish I could do more.

Our new and fun textile bags!

Hello dear I Care members! 

As you might know, we participated in the annual Haga Park picnic this past Saturday. This was a great way to hang out and spend time with our former members, as well as meet new people and share our project with them! We had a great time!

Also, we launched our new textile bags with the new logo and print (read the background story below*) which to our delight was much appreciated. 

We would therefore love to keep this going and sell more bags for our members to use and show their participation in this great cause! :) As always, all raised funds will go to the orphanage Dar al fityan. The price will be 130 kr (including shipping), and the bag will be on it's way as soon as we have received a message (through facebook or gmail) from you containing a printscreen of your payment to our account (see account details under Info in our Facebook profile). Make sure you mark your payment 'textile bag'!

We still need to figure out how we can send the bags to our members outside of Sweden as well, along with the demand for it, so if you live outside of Sweden and are interested in a bag, please send us a message and notify us! 

We hope that you want to represent this project by buying a bag, while making an important contribution at the same time! 

*Here's some background info about the new bag print; 

As we earlier shared with you about how we chose our new logo to capture the essence of the I Care project, we similarly wanted to have a personalized print for our textile bag that would truly represent the boys of Dar al fityan. Therefore, the print was taken from a previous hand print painting that the boys had made during a workshop in one of our earlier visits. This painting, a long with other canvas paintings, was later auctioned out at our event in june 2011 in order to raise money for the orphanage. For us, the playfulness of this print represents the significance of letting children be just that: children. 

We hope that you are as excited about the new logo and print as we are! Please give us your feedback and let us know if you are interested in purchasing a textile bag! 

With love, The I Care board

This is the handprint painting that is the print of the textile bag

Hagaparken BBQ #7

Hello everyone! We are thrilled to announce a collaboration with Hagaparken BBQ, a yearly initiative that gathers everyone who wants to be part of the positive energy and vibe of a vibrant Stockholm in the summer. Come hang with us, talk and ask questions, and buy our merchandise or place a donation. All profits will as always go to the orphanage of Dar al fityan. See you Saturday the 28th from 1 pm and on! Bless, the I Care crew 

For more details, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/626862687401560/

SSA's Annual Meeting

Yesterday Ehood, Fatima O. And myself attended the Swedish Sudanese Association's annual meeting. For those of you who don't know, we who run the project ICare are board members of the youth committee of SSA and each year two of us are also board members of SSA. This year it will be Fatima O. and I, meaning that in addition to being involved in ICare, we will also attend the board meetings held by SSA and in that way be the "intermediates" between the mother oeganisation and its youth committee. The meeting (which could be attended by any member of SSA, board member or not) went on for a couple of hours and there we reviewed the annual report which included events of the past year, the budget aswell as future plans for the organisation. We are all looking forward to the coming year and hoping to organize exciting events in aim to raise more money for this cause! Stay tuned! / Fatima S. 

The Closet

One thing that the orphanage has been in dire need of, are closets. Closets where the boys' clothes can be stored, since the ones they had were completely fallen apart. 

After talking to the orphanage manager we found out that two closets had been bought a few months back, however they were not made from a sustainable material that could handle being used a lot (since storage for clothes for 31 boys is constantly opened and closed) and therefore they unfortunately only lasted for a short while. 

We were recommended to buy closets made out of strong metal as they, despite of the higher cost, would last much longer. Luckily, our uncle's wife knew a place that sold such closets for a very reasonable price. So a few weeks back, my cousin and I went with her to go buy them. Despite facing some obstacles during the process of getting them and transporting them to the orphanage, we were able to get them there safe and sound at last! So now the boys have new closets for their clothes! 

Take care and until next time, sending warm hugs from Sudan / Fatima S. 

(We bought two of the kind shown on the picture. They are around two meters high and behind each door are 5 spaces of storage).

Supply-Shopping!

Hey again!

On Monday we went out to buy the supplies for the boys. We started off the day in morning by driving to one of the biggest markets in Sudan named Souk Libya (Libyan market), which is right outside of Khartoum. There we bought shoes (31 pairs!) and socks, as well as glycerine and vaseline (which they use as body creme). After that we drove back to Khartoum where we bought dry irons at the supermarket. When this was done it was time to buy the rest of the things on the list. To get as much as we could for the money we had we went to an inventory ('Jumla') where you buy things in batches. We were able to find the majority of the things on the list except for larger items such as closets and chairs.

Here’s a list of all the things we bought:
3 dry irons
31 pairs of shoes
36 pairs of socks
5 big boxes of pampers (6 x 13)
3 big sacks of powdered milk
3 big bottles of oil
2 batches of disinfectant
3 batches of flytex (mosquito killer)
4 batches of unperfumed soap
3 sacks of powdered soap
3 bags of onions
1 batch of dish washing soap
9 pairs of sandals
3 sacks of sugar
2 batches of perfumed soap
1 box (4 big packs) of diapers
10 spray bottles of airfreshner
3 batches of juice (powdered)

and finally, 1 box with 55 lollipops and 34 bags of chips as a treat.

We handed the things to the orphanage the day after, Tuesday. They boys, the manager and the women working in the orphanage (the “moms”) were all very happy when receiving the things that will all go to the boys. It really is a special feeling knowing that the things you buy will make a difference, whether a big or a small one.

We still have a few things left that we will do our best to find. Hopefully this can be done in the coming days.

(P.S. unfortunately our internet here in sudan is slow which makes it a little more difficult to update the blog with entries and pictures. When internet speeds up a few pictures will be added to this entry.)

Keep your eyes open for an update coming soon!

Warm regards from warm Sudan,
The two Fatimas 

    

2014- A great beginning!

Hey everyone!

Firstly, we would like to apologize for the lack of updates on the blog. All of us have had much going on in our lives, although that is no excuse.

Now to the good news. This summer we arranged a fundraiser in the form of a grill where approximately 3000 kr were raised. At the en of December some of us, Abir, Mae, Maha, Fatima O. and Fatima S., luckily were able travel to Sudan. With us we brought the money that was raised in the grill and in the senior year project of four girls from Rudbeck gymnasiet, as well as money that we had left in the ICare-fund.

Two weeks ago we visited the boys at the orphanage. It was so much fun seeing them again after a few years. For some of us it has been two years and for others three. We asked the manager of the orphanage to, as usual, write us a list of the things that they are in need of. This list included things such as diapers, soap, sugar, shoes, socks, sandals, cooking oil etc.

Unfortunately, Abir, Mae and Maha were only in Sudan for the first visit to the orphanage. However, we (the two Fatimas) stayed longer than the rest and were therefore able to go buy the things and give them to the boys.

Read the following blog entry to hear more about what we bought!

/ The two Fatimas