Every April 27th the Dutch celebrate the birthday of their King by selling their stuff at flee markets all around the country. We decided to join this year, not with our old second-hand clothes, but with our beautiful hand made products from Ukraine!
We arrived around 8 am at Goffertpark, the biggest park of Nijmegen, and in this town the biggest flee market for Kings Day. Although we were late to the party (most Dutchies claimed their spot around 6 am already), we got ourselves a great spot! Many people walked by, and our stand with handpainted plates really stood out between all the old toys and clothes other people were selling.
Slowly but surely people started to ask about our products, about our foundation, and to buy our products. And they started telling about their own experiences with Ukraine. One travelled to the border last year to pick up refugees, another was hosting a Ukrainian family in their house for some months now, another talked a little Ukrainian and wanted to practice with us.
He just wanted to help the people in Ukraine
Then there was this 10 year old boy. He saw a brooche that he liked, and wanted to buy it. It was 25 euros (or more - every euro extra is more than welcome ofcourse!). Without hesitating he got the money out of his wallet and gave it to us. That's when his mother interferred, saying that 25 euros might be a bit much for a brooche for a 10-year-old. We let them talk about it, and some minutes later the boy returned with 10 euro. He didn't want the brooche, he just wanted to help the people in Ukraine.
Then the local newspage of Indebuurt came by our stand and asked us about our work. They wrote an article about us, which you can read here (click!).
Our hearts were filled with love after that day. So many people showed that they really care about Ukraine either by buying our products (which helps us financially, but is also a distribution of typical Ukrainian art and culture) or by donating whatever money they could spare.
We gathered 840 euros that day!
The first bus filled with products bought from this money is already on it's way to Ukraine. We will write more about it in a next blog. For now we just want to thank everybody who contributed on Kings Day. We could not be any happier with the result of that day!
