Eid al-Fitr marks the official end of the holy month of the Muslim calendar, Ramadan. Traditionally, muslims celebrate by visiting friends and family, sharing indulgent sweets and hanging festive lights and lanterns around the home. We have a big muslim community on our campUses, so we thought it was a great opportunity to share this special time with them by hosting a Eid Party along with Because We Carry!
The day started with the handing out of special invitations, written in our three main CampUs languages - Farsi, Arabic and English. A special team of volunteers spent the morning assembling the invites in coloured mesh bags containing sweets and dried fruits, before going door-to-door to make sure everyone knew about the party.
We made sure the festival was family friendly, but still fun for all ages by organising a range of different activities. There was music and dancing in our CampUs Yuurt until 23:00 and the playlist was compiled by our residents, so all the different communities had the chance to hear their traditional music.
Out in the courtyard just outside the Yuurt, we also hosted a range of interactive art projects. CampUs women shared their henna drawing skills with each other at our henna bar. Younger children got to place their painted finger print on a huge Kara Tepe tree, as well as have the opportunity to get their face painted.
Most special of the art projects was the Hope Tree, where children could write down or draw their one wish on a wooden plank before hanging it up on a CampUs tree.
All in all, it was an unforgettable evening shared by residents, volunteers and coordinators of all backgrounds and religions. Thank you to everyone who made the event such a success!