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Sightseeing

Today the team were on a sightseeing trip!

We went to the beautiful city Mesta and afterwards we went to a beach where we were eating, playing and enjoying. It was a very nice day! It was really good for the team to get a day together to just enjoy. This helps us building the team spirit!

We couldn’t give out toiletries to the rest of the men in Vial today, because we don’t have enough donations. We are hoping to get donations before next Saturday! We gave out some strollers in Vial today before we went on the sightseeing .

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Clothes for men

Yesterday we had a distribution of clothes for men. It went very well and it was so nice that the men finally could get clothes again too!

We distributed for several hours and got rid of all the boxes we had with men clothes! We are so happy that all these clothes are now in Vial with the people who need them!

Here is some photos from yesterday’s distribution:

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Sorting and counting

Today we have been sorting and counting for tomorrow’s distribution of clothes for men. We have also been giving out baby bags made by Sølvi Sinkaberg, strollers from Kristin Gjelsvik and Pia Simonsen, and some blankets from One Family – No Borders. We gave out a baby bag to a one day old baby girl at the hospital.

We counted how many boxes and how many pieces we have of tops, trousers and traditional clothes for men.

We have so many clothes in our storage area and we really want to get them out to the people that should have them. Now the team is working hard to get it all out so they will get what they need.

We are hoping it will be a peaceful distribution where people will be happy.

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Toiletries to 300 single men in Vial

Last Saturday we gave out toiletries to 300 single men in Vial!

Selina and friend

It felt so good to finally give toiletries to the «forgotten» group. They have needed it for such a long time and we finally had the possibilty to give to them! Valerie Van Harten was paying for most of the toiletries, which made this distribution possible for us!

We tried a new way of distributing and we all felt much closer to the refugees and it was so much more positive energy. This day we really felt the love! Many people forget the single men because they think they are strong enough to survive on their own and don’t need much love. Honestly they are the group that needs the most love.

We experienced that the distribution of toiletries for single men was the day we receieved most love as well.

We will give to more single men if we will have enough donations for it. We really hope this will be possible!

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Clothes for women in Vial

We filled up the car with the same things and went to Vial again!

Now a lot more women were able to get. It is also nice to see them sharing what they took with some of their friends. We gave around 1000 pieces of clothes or probably more! It is all gifts and not like a normal distribution.

The point is to not have a line, not have any rules and just let people take.

We never usually do it and that is why we wanted to do it for just one day!

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Preparing for men’s distribution

Today we sorted men’s clothes all day so we can distribute them in Vial tomorrow.

We feel so sorry that the men are always forgotten, so we want to show them that they matter too! Tomorrow we will distribute men’s clothes and on Saturday we will distribute toiletries for men.

Here is some photos from today’s sorting!

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Leaving the old Iris Center buildings

Today we officially moved from the Iris Center buildings.

We moved all our things from the old Iris Center buildings to our new storage area. We had to use two trailers to move everything, but with good teamwork it was possible. The team was working so hard and we are so proud of everyone in our team!

We are actually more happy than sad that we now have to move. We all look at this as a new beginning… A new fresh start!

We can’t wait to start a new and even better version of the Iris Center. We believe it will be a lot better than what we had. Now, we have more opportunities and more experience!

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to start a new and better center for the refugees. This is the beginning of something great!

PEACE and LOVE from Iris Center team <3

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Distribution of women’s clothes

Yesterday we distributed sweaters, singlets, trousers, jackets, scarfs, abayas (dresses), hats, underwears and hijabs for women for serveral hours in Vial.

We had so many clothes that the women basically could take what they needed. Of course we had some limitations of how much each person could take! It was a very calm and nice distribution! Many people were happy and smiling. It was nice to see how the volunteers and the refugees were laughing and joking together.

In the end we were told to leave the area because the people demonstrating in the road of Vial wanted us to leave. They contacted the police, but the police were kind and gave us 10 minutes so we reached to finish with all the women!

The demonstrators were happy that they managed to send us away, while we were happy that they didn’t manage to destroy our work because we reached to finish with everyone!

With permission to post images of the faces.

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Biggest distribution

Now we just finished the biggest toiletry distribution we have ever had!

We worked from around 10 in the morning until 7:30 in the evening!

We are so proud of our hard workers! You are really wonderful people!
GOOD JOB!

Here is some photos from today!

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