THE STORY
In 2006 I traveled back to my native Africa to attend a wedding in Nairobi, Kenya. After the ceremony a group of friends decided to travel further north east of Kenya and Mombasa for a safari, to experience wild animal life and true soul of Africa’s population. The bus came to a stop when arriving at a small village. The houses were made the same way as ancient mud huts and there were no streets or shops. Only the Acacia trees provided some shade from the burning sun.
The road where we were standing was separated from the village by barbed wire and inside the fence adults and children stood, looking like they were waiting for something. I asked our driver and guide what they were waiting for and he answered quickly with a sad voice: “They are hoping for possible aid shipments”. My friend, the best man of the wedding, took a sip from his water bottle and was instantly approached by a group of children reaching their arms towards him. He handed them the bottle and they took it thanked for it. As we were prepared for the immense heat, our bus was completely stocked up on water and we started to share our supply with the children from the village. Finally we stood in the front of the bus surrounded by almost 100 kids who wanted water, but we were starting to run out. The driver told me that it had not been raining there for 5 years and we all felt an urge to help in some way.
We interrupted our safari, drove along to the next village and searched for a grocery store where we bought all the water, flour and butter that they had. With this load we went back to the village and handed over our “aid shipment”. The feeling that we hadn’t done enough kept coming back to me after returning to Sweden and I started thinking about what I could do. The idea of arranging an event where the surplus goes to charity hit me and I consulted some friends and colleagues if it could work. Said and done. The Operakallaren Foundation was born. After eleven years, it is now Sweden’s leading private charity event!
Operakallaren works passionately with this event and we do our very best to ensure that Operakallarens Foundation is a very successful and exclusive charity event.
Sincerely,
Abbe Ibrahim
Founder of Operakallarens Foundation & CEO AB Operakällaren
