Happy New Year! March 22 was the New Year in Afghanistan, a time of celebration, and the House of Flowers is no exception. It thrives on! And now, with the release of our new and revamped website in this new year, we are happy to also begin an important fundraising campaign.
Our long-time donors, Canadian Women for Women of Afghanistan, will be unable to give us the level of support they have been, and thus we have to raise more in order to keep the House operating smoothly. The House staff has, in response, tightened the budget. They offered to reduce their salaries as well, but we insisted that they keep their salaries. Our goal is to raise $50,000 by the summer. Please see the 2018 budget here.
In the meantime, the House welcomes more children, including little Ada in the pictures here, enjoying some attention from her new big brothers at the House. And the older children have started school again after the new year holiday, attending their neighborhood school. In the afternoons they do extra activities with their teachers Fatima, Basira and Razia (our teacher who in fact grew up in the House herself).
So, life continues joyously and happily in the House of Flowers, and we hope that more and more people will be involved in supporting these children who have little family and have suffered tragedy, all of whom are being cared for by the staff.
