News

Dear friends,

As we now write to you again the summer is here and we are enjoying the bright and sunny period.  We look forward to a holiday and to spend time with friends and families.  Some of the team will go to a camp and some will relax and enjoy just being at home.

Remus our colleague is still recovering after the operation and despite this he works two days a week.  We hope he will soon be able to work five days a week as he loves to do.

More and more visitors are coming back after the long break following the pandemic.  We are glad to meet new as well as well-known friends, coming to shop and to spend time with us.

During the spring we had big orders for special aprons for pottery making.  They are made in a water repellent material in different colours and are divided in two after the waist to protect the knees.  All kinds of people who like to make pottery, from the whole of Sweden, ordered from us.

In Oradea, more and more companies are ordering aprons, t-shirts or other personalized products from us.  They recommend our work to each other and this is very encouraging for us.

Right now we have an order for a very well-known kindergarten in Oradea.  We  are also asked to repair different things such as ‘change a zip or mend trousers’, for both children and parents from Caminul Felix and for our customers.

We wish you all a blessed and peaceful summer.  Thank you for your support.

Greetings from the whole team at Sunflower Design.

Dear Friends,                

   The first weeks after Christmas and New Years holiday has passed and we have had an unusual start to the year.  It became a busy time with many orders both in Romania and in Sweden.  For Sweden we had orders for around 90 aprons, specially made for pottery making, and more orders will come.  The aprons are made in a special impregnated fabric and match the purpose well.  In Romania we made many bags and specially designed hats for the veterinary school in Cluj-Napoca.

In October some of our friends from England came back, following the years of the pandemic when it was hard to travel.  They  joined the team for some weeks and were working with us.  Thank you David, Jeanette and Christine! 

 In November and December we had Christmas selling both in Romania and Sweden, and it was a blessed time for us.  Our friends in Norway and England were working hard as well for us at Christmas time. We hope many people were happy to receive Christmas gifts people bought from us.

the team in Sunflower Design we are glad that we can reach out and help other Ministries with some of their needs.  We have shared with you about the ministry in Dumbrava and also in Tinka.  Those places are in our neighbourhood.  They contacted us some weeks ago asking if we could make more bedding for them.  Their ministries are a blessing, helping old, lonely and ill people.  Often in their last days of life.  Due to the situation with their health their beds need to be changed every day, thus they wear out and need replacements.  We can make them, but we need help to pay the cost of the fabric.  We realise we have asked before, and we ask again, if it might be possible to give an extra donation?  The cost for a waterproof mattress cover is 10 euros.  This includes fabric, elastic, bandwidth, and workmanship.  Feel free to contact us if you need more information.

In Romania we had a mild winter, but now in February the cold is intense with minus degrees.  We are thankful that in Sunflower it is warm,  pleasant, and we can work in optimal conditions.  

We are also thankful for receiving nice and useful fabric from Sweden.  We have this contact from friends in  Trollhattan,  Sweden.

The team is doing well, but is missing our colleague, Remus.  He had surgery in December and he needs to recover now.  We are in  touch with him, and he says he misses work, as he is very devoted to his service.  We hope he will be back to work in March.

Thank you all for your support in different ways, and your prayers.

Greetings from the team at Sunflower Design.

Dear friends,

We have been back some weeks, from our summer holidays and are still enjoying the warm and beautifully coloured Autumn. The celebrating of the 30th Anniversary of Caminul Felix just passed and we had the opportunity to meet many friends and sell our products. Sunflower Design was open on the Saturday afternoon for this occasion.

Lately, we have been working in order to sell at a market in the city centre. We are there every Thursday afternoon together with other people, who mostly sell vegetables, fruit and flowers which are in season. It’s a great opportunity to find new customers.

We also have a big order from a new customer, to make dresses for ladies and girls from Maramures, a beautiful area in northern Romania. People there wear traditional colourful dresses of that region, and it’s good business to sell to tourists who visit Maramures as well.

Among all this, we started to buy fabric and make products for Christmas, and now is the time to think about Christmas gifts. We welcome you, to order gifts for family, friends or even your company!

We can look back on a long time that had many challenges, as Covid 19 hit us all. In all that happened. we can still see that with hard work we could manage and keep the work and team going.
In Romania new ways opened up to get more opportunities for selling. In Sweden Catarina was selling and took orders. It is a blessing to see how the leaders from Sunflower have been open to find new ways to reach out to people and it has been successful. We hope and pray it will continue in the same way this fall.

We wish you all a nice Autumn!
Greetings from the whole team at Sunflower Design

Dear friends,
We have had many warm days already and it is just the beginning of the summer. We
will soon start to take our holidays. Some of us will go for a camp, some visit friends
and families or just relax at home. However we spend our holiday we shall have fun,
enjoy our time with friends and recharge our batteries for Autumn.
In April the first international group visited us, since covid started. We spent a good
time with some of the group, who wanted to help us in the work. They also bought
many things from the giftshop to take back home. We really miss those days with
groups coming and we hope more will come in Summer and Autumn.

A group of senior people from Romania visited our town, Oradea, this spring. They
were impressed by our products in the gift shop and they bought many beautiful
aprons as useful souvenirs. We are very happy and thankful that we received new and
nice fabric from some friends in Sweden. It made it possible to keep the prices lower
and at the same time make many more new things.

We continue to expand the team, taking new girls from Caminul Felix in our
workshop. Since May, Iulia Kiss is coming for training. She is 22 years old and she
grew up in the same family as Remus at Caminul Felix. She likes her colleagues and
enjoys the work and being busy. She is a happy girl and we can see her smiling almost
all the time. She has just started to do the first stitches with the sewing machine, but
needs much more practice and help from the team.

Mariana who left Sunflower some years ago, comes as a volunteer for 2 and half
hours every day, too. She loves Sunflower!
A part of the team is currently working for a need in Noble House. Thanks to a
Swedish sponsor who made a donation for Ukrainian refugees, we have been able to
buy fabric for sheets. These will serve to accommodate the refugees in the hotel.

Thank you all for support for our ministry and for the Ukrainian refugees. Together
we can make a difference!!
We wish you a restful and warm summer!
Many greetings from the whole team at Sunflower Design.

Dear friends,

It is time to send the first newsletter for this year. Spring is on the way and the earliest flowers start to bloom. We  are looking forward to  brighter times. We had some cold days and as the electricity has been very expensive we decided to work at home some days, to save some money and electricity. 

The Christmas selling in Sweden went well even if we didn’t sell in so many places as usual. Still the pandemic affected the ability of so many people to gather. In Oradea it was also hard to sell like we used to because of restrictions. We hope the situation soon will be better and it will be easier to reach out with our products.

 

We thank you all who support us in different ways such as selling our products, buying from us and spreading information about our ministry to people around you. It means a lot to us.

 We are right now a smaller group working in the team as some chose to leave for other opportunities. We plan in the future to employ some more in the team, since we work with just a few girls, and of course our boy, in the team. We really appreciate our workers who are consistent and make an effort to work even if their physical and mental health does not allow them to do too much. Despite her pain, Ana makes a considerable effort to move and use her hands as much as she can.  However, she gladly comes and works at her own pace, because she loves Sunflower. 

Despite the pandemic situation we have orders in Oradea. Soon we celebrate Mother’s day and some organisations have ordered many towels from Sunflower to give to ladies.

We hope to have visitors this year. We miss meeting our friends from Sweden, England, Norway and US.

As we all know the situation in Ukraine is terrible. Many people have had to leave everything that they had. The first group of women and children from Ukraine arrived March 2nd to Caminul Felix and they received food and accommodation.  The next day they continued on to different destinations and a new group with 60 children and women arrived the same evening. The youngest was 1 month old. “Sunflower Design”s team is involved in making bedding for all the beds and also making other things such as baby clothes, or whatever they need. 

You are very welcome to support Sunflower Design´s work for our Ukrainian friends. You can support by giving a gift by PAYPAL from our website. To send a gift follow the instruction, as a part is written in swedish: Press buy products, buy now, Beskrivning: write Ukraine, Pris per objekt: the amount in USD you want to give, antal: 1, fortsätt and after login on PAYPAL or pay with credit card. Let us know if you need our help.

For our Swedish friends you can use SWISH: 1232015550 , mark with Ukraine

Thank you for prayers and support!

Many greetings from all of us at Sunflower Design

Dear friends,

Autumn is here, after a hot and dry summer in Romania. Holiday time is over for almost all of us, but some kept it for later. We all had a good time, spending with friends, siblings and the family.

Now we start to make plans about selling for Christmas. Our work tables are full with fabric and patterns for aprons, tablecloths, bags, fleece, baby clothes and more. Where and how we can sell depends on the pandemic. In Sweden there will be a Christmas selling November 20th in Korskyrkan in Mölndal. In Romania we don’t know yet. In this autumn we had only two days of selling in Oradea and we really missed it, but in our workshop every day someone came to buy or brought an order or things which need to be repaired.

Don’t hesitate to contact us for any kind of order. We have a stock in Mölndal in Sweden and it’s possible for items to be picked up or to be sent from there. It will also be possible to book small group sales there. If you have any special request for Christmas gifts we ask you to let us know as soon as possible as it takes time to organise the shipping.

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We are thankful for all gifts and orders we received during the summer and autumn, so far. One box is ready to be sent to Norway, with products ready to be sold there by Ruthmor Sanne, a good friend of Sunflower Design. Another order is to make embroidery on 100 caps for Julle Rommedahl, elcykelexperten in Habo, Sweden and in England David and Jeanette start to sell for us again. Thank you also to all who gave support for our different project that we mentioned about in the last newsletter and for the summer gift. Families in Caminul Felix and families who need support in Mölndal, Sweden have received bedding. Your support makes a difference! 

 

Our desire is to keep you informed with our activity in Sunflower.  We want to ask if anyone wants to receive the newsletter by e-mail instead of  post. This is more safe, more economic, and faster. If you choose this way to be informed please let us know and send your e-mail address to our colleague, Estera. Her e-mail address is : estera.tirtea@yahoo.com 

We wish you all a nice Autumn.

Many greetings from the whole team at Sunflower Design

Dear friends,

Summer is here with sun and lovely weather.  We are happy and looking forward to a nice summer with holidays waiting. We hope that you will find time for rest and relaxation. The good news is for all of us that after a long time of Covid 19, everything now looks to be easier. The news in Romania is that fewer and fewer people are being infected or hospitalized. 

 With wonder, we see how Sunflower Design has managed through this long time without anyone being infected. The work has gone at full capacity through the fine team of leaders and workers who are on site. 

Thank you also to all of you who so faithfully continue to support the work financially by shopping, ordering or sending in a donation. You should know that it means a lot. 

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We hope that we will soon be able to receive guests and teams to Caminul Felix so we can welcome visitors to our gift shop. We need that! 

Let’s share a little about what’s happened since we wrote our last newsletter. 

One of our fine employees who has been with us for many years decided to quit her job at Sunflower Design to take up a new job. We are grateful for the years Miha has been in the team she has delighted us all with her beautiful smile. Now we wish her good luck in the future. 

Lisa moved back to Sweden with Lars after 30 years of service in Romania. Sunflower Design was a project she started 25 years ago. Lisa will continue to work and provide support from Sweden and we are grateful for her vision and support.  

In spring we joined a new project in Mölndal, Sweden. We made bedding and children’s clothing for people who need economic and social support. The products were given out from a diaconal group in a church, who work with people who need social support. The project continues and if anybody would like to support with a donation it would be very welcome. With the money you donate, you support both a job for our team and support people in need in the project in Mölndal. The donated money is used to make the products which are then given away to those who need support. Double support – double happiness. 

We also continue with the project making bedding for children in Caminul Felix. If  you want us to make new bedding for a child you support or to give another child in Caminul Felix, we can make it. The price for bedding is 22€ including a pillowcase. Our goal is to make 2 sets of bedding for each family, totalling 32 pieces. 

In previous years, we have offered you the opportunity to send an extra gift for the team at Sunflower to have some extra fun for the summer, before they start taking their vacations. If you see an opportunity to give a gift for this purpose, feel free to send it to Sunflower Design.  Please mark your gift with the message: “Summer gift for Sunflower”. 

Join us on Facebook, Instagram and our website to keep up to date. Don’t hesitate to contact us for any requests. The products can be shipped from Romania and Sweden. For our Swedish friends it is easy for you to make a donation by Swish. 

We want to remind you of the opportunity to get our newsletter on email. You can sign up on our facebook to get it on email in English or send an email to let us know.  In this way you will be making a contribution to reducing the substantial cost of postage. 

We want to wish you a really nice summer and vacation.

Thank you all for support and prayers for our team. 

Greetings from the whole team Sunflower Design

Our Christmas party took place in  Sunflower Design where we helped to cook and set the table nicely. The joy of Christmas was there. THANK YOU to those who sent us an extra gift so we could make a nice party with food and Christmas gifts. It is important and valuable to feel a sense of belonging and joy.

We look back on the year behind us with great gratitude. The year behind us has been a year of struggling. But, with help from many of you, we have been able to work our way through this period in a fantastic way. Through your support, we have been able to continue sewing sheets and other necessary products to other organizations that need help. We continue to do this now.. We have now established another contact with an organization that works with Roma families and with girls who have fallen victims to trafficking.

It was not possible to do our yearly tour last year in Sweden in November, because of the pandemic. Despite this, we were able to sell in different ways. Some friends helped us to sell locally in Sweden, England and Norway. It was also possible to sell in smaller groups in Korskyrkan in Mölndal, Sweden, where we could have all the products on tables during the whole of December. Its amazing how we all could work together in different ways in a difficult time.

We try to seek and find sales opportunities in Romania in the hope of inspiring people to place orders that will give us an income. Two important days are  The Valentine’s Day and  The International Women’s Day.

After years of using and repairing very old household sewing machines, it became necessary for us to replace and buy a new one. The machines have been used many years in schools in Sweden before we got them and afterwards we used them another 10-15 years. In order to make nice things of high quality we bought a new sewing machine which matches our purpose, and a professional iron as well. We give thanks to Korskyrkan in Mölndal for the support to make it possible.

Our plan is now to get started with the renovation in our rooms in Sunflower. It has not been done for many years. That’s what we really need. Getting to work in a  pleasant environment is important.

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Remus has worked for 10 years at Sunflower Design on February 14th and we celebrated that! Mari sat down  and had a talk with Remus about work. You can read what was said as follow:

M: How long have you been working at Sunflower Design? 

R: 10 years. I have been late  to work twice. But then I took a taxi because I did not want to miss work

 M: When do you get up in the morning to be on time for work? 

R: At 05:00 

M: What is the best thing about the job? 

R: It is a nice atmosphere, peaceful and I can listen to Christian radio in my room. We also have good leaders. 

M: What do you remember in any special way from work that made you happy? 

R: When Gabriela worked with us as a leader. She was always happy and encouraging. 

At Sunflower Design, we are happy and grateful to have Remus in our team. He is the only man among  all ladies! 

You can help Sunflower Design by giving support for us to make:

*  Covers, pillowcases and bed sheets for the Ministry in Dumbrava. Or to the 100 Roma families who receive help through another organization.

*Bedding for girls who have fallen victim to trafficking

* Jumpers for our children in the Caminul Felix Villages

* Jumpers for children who need help

* For renovation or our facilities

At the end we would like to offer you the newsletter as email instead.  Please inform us and send your email address if you are interested. Already now you can sign up for the newsletter in English on our website.

God Bless you all,

Greetings from the whole team at Sunflower Design

Dear friends,

It’s time to write to you again. As always, we do with great joy and gratitude.

It was a very different spring and summer for us at work. Just as we know it was for many of you. But, in all this, we have experienced fantastic support from many of you who sent in a gift that made it possible for us to pay the salaries for our team.

Catarina has been in Sweden for a long time since the borders between the countries around Romania, have been closed and the rules to travel into the country have made it impossible. Instead, Catarina has worked for Sunflower back home in Sweden by taking orders and selling. In addition to that she works as a nurse and makes a nice contribution there.

Saddle cover 6€

We have had the pleasure of receiving donations from several of you, that we have used to sew sheets, pillow cushions and other articles requested, which we then passed on to the Ministry in Dumbrava. This is a work and a mission that continues and that constantly needs help. Today there are about 420 residents in Dumbrava. Elderly and homeless people who get to live their last days in life in a nice home and peaceful environment. We can continue to give them support through your help. We would be grateful if you could continue sending a gift for work we do for Dumbrava. In this way, you provide support to Sunflower Design and to Dumbrava.

We have also received orders from Romania. Many come to have their clothes changed or repaired. All this provides an extra income. The schools in Romania started up in the beginning of September. The government requested all younger students to wear facemasks. Also a cover to keep their changing clothes when they come to school. Sunflower was there to offer making facemasks and the cover for clothes. These were made in bright and happy colours for the children, with their names on using our embroidery machine. It is amazing to see the support we have received from Romania during this time. We are so thankful for that, and to see Sunflower Design reaching out in Romania.

For a week we had a major cleaning in our workrooms  in preparation for laying the  new floor in our workshop as well as repainting several rooms. Our gift shop was renewed by allowing us to buy some new shelves and hanging up new curtains.  Now we are  waiting for the help to have the new floor done. It is important to have a nice and pleasant workplace to offer our team to work in.

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We can now offer you payment for products or donations by PayPal. It makes it easier  for our customers to order and pay. Don´t hesitate to contact us for any kind of orders. Time goes fast Christmas will be coming soon, so be sure to order gifts in time for your family, relatives and friends.

Shipping cost;

England: 2 kg 16€, 4 kg 38€

The US: 2 kg 24€, 4 kg 41€

Dresses 14€                                                 Teatowels 3€

Our friends in Birmingham, UK have a quantity of Sunflower goods in stock, including some nice new additions.  They are eager to hear from you to explore ways to supply goods with lower postage and packing within UK.  (or even a possible link up).  Contact: danightingale@hotmail.co.uk

We wish you all a blessed time this autumn and ask you to keep us in your prayers!

Many greetings from the whole team at Sunflower Design

Wetbags 7 € Dresses 14€

Dear friends,

It is time to send you greetings from Sunflower Design and we do that with great joy and happiness, even if things around us seem to be chaotic with the corona virus, and we know that all of you are in the same situation.

We could not imagine that it should hit Romania as hard as it did. We could work as we used to do until Easter time, when directives came from the government as to how we should continue.  Delia who is living outside Oradea and travels everyday on bus and tram was asked to work from home. Andrea and Remus were also asked to stay at home, leaving Miha, Ana, Mari and Estera. 

As many workplaces and shops were closing down, and people were out of jobs we became worried  about our place. What shall we do? Who will buy or order things now?  What will happen? In Caminul Felix many of our guests and visitors who were supposed to come cancelled their trips and we lost them as shoppers in our gift-shop.

Then, came a phone call to Mari: Can, you make some face masks for us?  From that day we have been able to make around 2000 face masks and more will be done. For us it has been a miracle to get those many orders as it has given us an income.

In Sunflower Design one of our goals is to reach other Ministries. And we have been able to do that this time too. We wrote a request of help with support on facebook and many of you responded and sent a gift. Thank you for doing that! You have been a blessing to many people, and so to Sunflower Design. I will share one response we got from one of our friends who responded to our call of help:

Elder Orphan Care’s mission is to “bring hope and help to older adults in need.” And the help that God allows us to provide is of a practical nature, which is where our partnership with Sunflower Design Romania becomes a perfect fit! EOC is based in the US. And our teams usually travel to Romania twice each year to visit over 500 elderly and frail being cared for by our ministry partners. For a time we were shipping, or bringing with us, lots of stretch-top pants and bedding, like sheets and pillowcases, etc. One day it became clear: why not instead collaborate with our good friends at Sunflower Design, based right next to where our teams stay at the Noble House at Caminul Felix? It would be a “win-win”! Elder Orphan Care gives money to them, which provides jobs and salaries, and then they create needed items, which then are given to the elderly and frail! The pandemic has caused EOC to cancel some trips to Romania, but we continue to send funds, including money sent to Sunflower Design for the creation of masks. Over the past few years our friendship and partnership with the wonderful people at Sunflower Design has deepened.  We thank God for each of them!

Greetings from Kim Jackson

I have planted some Sunflower seeds at home. I looked in the dictionary about the Sunflower. I was  amazed and happy when I read that Sunflower is a symbol of God´s love. It is also a symbol of the sun. The yellow colour is a symbol of energy. It told me that this in some ways reflects the whole team in Sunflower, and all of you too!

We wish you all the best and pray that you all shall stay healthy. We will continue to work and support and help as many as we can around us as we know it still will continue to be a time of many challenges. Thank you for standing at our side and if you see a way to send an extra gift to us would be wonderful.

Tea towels 3€, small wetbag 5€, teddybears 7€,  hand made dish cloth in Bamboo/cotton 6€

Please, feel free to contact us to let us know how you can support us, bearing in mind that because without visitors to our shop, income has drastically reduced.

God bless from the Sunflower Team/