Our Ehsan Community is a large part of us at Global Ehsan Relief. They’re more than just donors or volunteers but rather, their support means the world to us. And amongst our community are our fundraisers; those who are committed to fundraise for our local and international projects. One of our regular fundraisers is Dee, the founder of A Cup of Dee, a local business in Singapore.
Recently, we caught up with Dee to learn more about her motivations for fundraising for our projects. In line with the month of Muharram, A Cup of Dee is fundraising for Hybrid Water Wells. Read on below to know more about A Cup of Dee!
I am Dee. The love of art, printed fabric and handcrafted brooches led me to the founding of A Cup of Dee (ACOD) in 2014. ACOD was named after the cups of coffee I couldn’t live without, and that was how I found the brand name – with the intention that ACOD printed hijabs will be the cup of tea for muslimahs. We are a hijab brand carrying different types of hijabs and we also love journeying with our customers who are transitioning towards wearing the hijab.
Currently, our new venture is our Digital Studio, carrying print on-demand designs for hijabs.
I chanced upon Global Ehsan Relief (GER) back in 2018. At that time, I was trying to find a local organisation that does humanitarian projects – that’s how I discovered GER. I started the $1/hijab campaign during Ramadhan and also during other months, so we could collate sales a few months long until we achieve a certain amount. Then, we would distribute the funds across a few projects from GER. We’ve also collaborated with Bottle of Wellness to fundraise for Water Wells.
With the support and generosity of our customers and from our purchases, we managed to do some projects such as Waqf Qur’an, Waqf Prayer Space, Jumaah Meals, Iftar Meals, Care for Orphans project, Share a Meal, Ehsan Education Fund, Waqf Madrasah and Mosque refurbishment – to name a few.
The ones that we felt deeply for were the construction of Water Wells for various villages, the Yemen Emergency Appeal (providing milk for children), the Sulawesi Emergency Relief and Turkiye Earthquake.
I have always felt amazed by volunteers who are able to contribute their time and effort to give back to the community. Unfortunately due to my personal commitments, work and handling my children, I’m not able to be physically available or to be readily committed to voluntary projects (although I would love to do so!).
I like to watch such documentaries, where it gives me a sense of awareness that there are a lot more people out there in need and we are just plain lucky and fortunate more than we ever know. I also like to show those kinds of videos to my children – it makes you feel grounded.
So, I was trying to find ways on how I can do my part and start campaigning to support humanitarian projects was one of the ways that I am able to do through my website and hopefully garner support from my customers too.
It is not an easy feat campaigning and getting the word out to support our initiatives but whenever we couldn’t hit our targets, we’ll go back to our own style of contributing which is from our sales; $1 a hijab will then be used to support the projects. Insya-allah.
As someone from the education industry, I feel strongly towards projects that are inclined towards orphans, children, education and single moms. I feel the need to support education and madrasah related projects. It also reminded me of my late dad, as he is someone who is generous towards orphans and children.
Providing water is also another cause that I feel strongly about. Water is a need and I just couldn’t imagine those villagers not having clean water or easily accessible water, what more babies and children.
It also gave a sense of accomplishment being able to play that small part and seeing them smiling next to their Water Well in the photos, the feeling is just indescribable. This again wouldn’t be possible without all of our generous customers. Water Well projects have been our number 1 go to project whenever we decide on which project to give back to since 2018.
It is important because the rezeki (blessing) we received is meant to be shared. As cliche as it sounds, dalam rezeki kita memang ada rezeki orang lain (in our own blessings, there are blessings for others too). I always believe it is not in the amount, but always the intention. Whenever we have the intention to give back, we are also teaching ourselves patience and adaptability to keep going with grit and faith especially when we are trying to get others to trust us and to support these projects willingly. But somehow it’ll always eventually work out, Insyaallah.
“Thank you for the many years of support, through our hijab purchases or even generously adding that extra donation in your cart. Together, bit by bit we can do so much together. Thank you for entrusting ACOD with our little initiatives. It wouldn’t have been possible without your support.”
For us in Singapore, we are blessed with clean water and easy access to water. Building these water sources have a great impact in the lives of these people in terms of health, improved agriculture, healthy live stocks and sustainable livelihoods. It will also keep the children and babies safe from waterborne diseases. Providing water is also believed to be the best charity in Islam.
It is more than just a Water Well; us building it together will actually save lives and the positive chain reaction out of this sadaqah jariyah is amazing.
