Posts Tagged ‘Sweden’

The Swedish project to benefit Esther’s Hope has begun. Two young women living near Stockholm, Caroline Broliden and Linda Klaesso, have taken an interest in the children of Victorious Faith Refuge Home. As part of a school project, they will be collecting clothes, toys, and medical supplies to be shipped to the Refuge Home in Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa.

Here is their latest report. I’ve included an image (below) of the flier they created.

We have been composing flyers to send people in our town. They were quite tricky to write when we want so much information in them, but at the same time too much information will be boring and increase the chance of people simply throwing them away.

During the weekend we plan to put them in people’s mailboxes so that we can pick up the material they hopefully donated the following week. In the fliers people will get instructed to place the material they wish to donate at their gates so that it then will be easy for us to just pick it up.

We would like to give people at least a week to go through their basements and wardrobes to be able to find things they don’t use anymore.

During that week we’ll turn to hospitals and health centers and hopefully we can get some medical equipment for the children in Liberia.

In the text of the flyer we also tell people that they can follow the progress of our project via the website.

We will start to look for ways to ship the material to Liberia. Earlier we found that it would cost 2000 Swedish Kr (about 280 USD) for 20 Kg delivered in 8 days from Stockholm. But I expect we could find a cheaper delivery company with less delivery time. Because the material doesn’t need to be delivered within a week for our sake.

Linda and Caroline

Swedish Project Flier

Caroline and Linda

Meeting the children of Victorious Faith Refuge Home in Liberia inspired me. One brief encounter – hearing their shy giggles, seeing their bright smiles, their wide-eyed curiosity and their sweet spirits in the face of such crushing poverty – inspired me to get involved. I couldn’t simply look the other way and go about life as usual. Esther’s Hope is the ongoing effort spawned by that first encounter.

I’m also inspired when someone, who hasn’t had the benefit of meeting the children in person, is motivated to join the Esther’s Hope effort to provide hope and other essentials for life to our kids. Caroline and Linda serve as a great example. These young women from Sweden are making the children of Esther’s Hope the focus of their school project. They are organizing a drive to collect clothes, toys, textiles and simple medical equipment.

I introduced them to this blog in an earlier post. (Read it Here).  This time we learn more about these “heroines in the making” from themselves.

From Caroline Broliden…

In school I study mostly natural science like chemistry and biology, so most of my time after school is dedicated to studies. However, when I have time I like to play tennis and to spend time with my friends and family.

I love the summer because it is warm and sunny; unfortunately I live in Sweden where it’s summer for only two months a year.

After my twelve years of studying in school I want to travel before applying to university.

From Linda Klaesson…

I do not share Caroline’s interest in science, instead I study more social studies and environmental politics, but also a little bit of chemistry and physics and some math. I’m more interested in how societies work than the laws of Isaac Newton.

When I don’t study I play theater and spending time with my friends or in the stable. Because I live on an island in the archipelago north of Stockholm, 30 kilometers from school, I also spend a lot of time on a bus.

Next year I would like to take a gap-year traveling before going to university studying more about environmental issues.

Watch for future updates on the project and progress from the Swedish supporters of Esther’s Hope.

Caroline and Linda

We live in a technologically amazing time in history.  We can easily communicate with someone on the opposite side of the world as easily as we can with our next door neighbor. Through technology the whole world has become our “neighborhood.” In that sense, Let me introduce you to some new “neighbors.”

A couple of weeks ago I received email from a young woman in Sweden.  Caroline wrote to me about herself and her friend, Linda.  They had discovered Esther’s Hope on the web and asked if we would be interested in items they would collect for Esther’s Hope as part of a school project.

It took me at least a second or two to email back my answer – “YES!”

I asked them to send a little about their project that I could share on the blog.  Here’s their response…

Sweden - Image via Wikipedia

As our last-year project we have decided to support a children’s home by collecting clothes, toys and simple medical equipment. We heard about Esther’s Hope and decided to cooperate because we have the same goal. With this project we hope to be an inspiration to others around the world.

So who are we?

Our names are Linda Klaesson and Caroline Broliden. We are both 18 years old and live outside of Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. We are in the third year of Viktor Rydberg Gymnasium, and next year we will go to university. In the twelfth year of school we have an obligatory 100 hours project.

As mentioned, we have decided to support Victorious Faith Refuge Home. We will the following months collect and later send a donation of clothes, toys, textiles and simple medical equipment to Esther’s Hope.

The reason why we choose to help children in Africa is that we want to do something meaningful for someone and that our work could make a difference.

Watch this blog for regular updates from Caroline and Linda.  I’m hoping others will see their story and be inspired to follow their example. Feel free to leave a word of encouragement for them by clicking the “Comment” link below.