On this beautiful Mandela Day, I’m so happy to report that on the 6th of July we hosted our Fashion Breed & Friends charity sale at the beautiful shared workspace, Kelvin Corner, and thanks to your purchases and donations sale, we raised R25 547!
With that, we were able to fund the building of three water wells; two medium-sized wells, serving approximately 200 people each, and one smaller tube well serving approximately 35 people. The wells’ construction are facilitated by Muslim Hands, who do a phenomenal job setting up these water projects in North Africa, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
If you’d like to contribute to their water projects, or commission a well yourself (they start at R3500 each), it’s an incredible way to give back. You can simply add one to cart on muslimhands.org.za, process your payment and the payment process is so quick and easy. It takes at least 6 months to build and once it’s complete, they send you photographs and feedback from the community.
So why do we always choose to give water?
When people asked Prophet Mohamad (may peace be upon him), what the best form of charity is to give, he advised to give people water. Hundreds of years later, there are approximately 1 billion people in the world today who do not have access to clean water; our number one life source. In some countries, kids are pulled out of their schools to walk kilometers each day to fetch water for their families, and often even that source isn’t sanitary and is shared with animals. Furthermore, as muslims, donating something like a water well counts as “Sadaqa Jariyah” which means “ongoing charity”, something that continues to help others and one of the only ways for muslims to acquire good deeds even after they have passed on. That being said, these sales and wells are a way to help people reap longterm benefits, but from an Islamic perspective, it’s a way for everyone who donates to reap the rewards. If you prefer a universal perspective; what goes around, comes around, and a water source keeps sending good karma around and around and around!
A little more about the event:
I have to start by thanking my event gurus and pop-up shop specialists, Homemade Cape Town, outdid themselves, creating an event that not only ran smoothly but was beautifully-executed to the finest details. Furthermore, Kelvin Corner, a new shared workspace in Woodstock, was the perfect venue. Their management team were unbelievably helpful and their food was DELICIOUS (Seriously; my family parked off at the food counter for hours eating and eating and continuously raving about everything)!
Thank you to our amazing vendors: Nala Cape Town, Streetlines Apparel, Daphne Accessories, The Beauty Network and Pomegranate Wellness for joining forces with us, bringing in your loyal clientele and contributing to the overall vibe and charity. Thank you to Muslim Hands for making it so easy to donate and construct these wells. Thank you to my amazing sister-in-law who spent three days making price tags, tagging my clothing and creating a system for me to have some order. Thank you to the brands who send me so many gifts. I’ll never be able to use or post about absolutely everything, and it takes a lot of strength not to hoard it all. I love that we can use those items to make the lives of others so much easier.
But most of ALL, thank you to each and every one of you who came through, or shopped or donated or even just shared the event poster online. In the past 18 months, YOU have made it possible for us to have donated a total of eight wells through these sales, varied in size and helping around 4500 people (the biggest one was donated by Swiitch Beauty). I really can’t take credit for all of this, but I do want to thank you for giving me so many opportunities in my life, and for supporting me in trying to use my platforms and privilege for good.
Lastly, we had an EPIC playlist on the day, full of new songs, old songs and guilty pleasures. You can stream it on Spotify here!
xx
Images by Abdul Malick Ally and Jannah Ruthvan
By sharing her personal style, fashion and beauty advice, written reflections and more, Fashion Breed is a place for women to learn, relate and connect.
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