We are very proud to be able to share our project With love from Pappelina. A project that is close to our heart and part of our DNA – both for sustainability and hu­manitarian reasons. A few years ago, at a time the world had reached a low point and when so many people had to flee their homes and countries, we started to discuss what we could do to help and how we could make an impact. This evolved to an idea to put 100% of our produced material in to use. As for all producing companies, sometimes we end up with products that cannot be sold or used the way they were original intended for. Beautiful products that still can be of good use somewhere and somehow. A first contact with UNHCR was made, a plan was set into motion, and the rest is history. For the next couple of days, we are going to share the journey we had in cooperation with UNHCR.

Together with the local Lions International Club in Borlänge, an organization that works globally to serve the local community and meet humanitarian need worldwide, we started to sort rugs. We managed to reach our goal to sort over 4 000 kg in just a few days. Uganda was set as a destination as they received lots of refugees fleeing from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For us as human beings it is a given to reach out and do what we can to help, for Pappelina as a company, it is our obligation – together we can make the world a better place!

Our help could not wait as the situation in the world got more and more difficult. Our rugs needed to be shipped as soon as possible. We arranged the freight at own expense as we didn’t find a partner for the shipping arrangement. In April 2021, 11 pallets left our warehouse to Gothenburg, from where a container got shipped to Uganda for a long 48-day journey on the sea.

In June the shipment of rugs reached the port of Uganda and was repacked for the UNHCR warehouse in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. A transportation by land that took 14 days. In total 5 000 rugs were shipped to Uganda, weighing over 4 000 kg, packed on 11 pallets in 1 container.

August: Our rugs reached the final destination in Kampala, the Rhino and Imvepi refugee settlements in northern Uganda. Together with UNHCR we managed to provide people with our rugs to use as sanitarian aid. Rugs that can be used for sleeping arrangements, to store clothes or keeping areas clean where food is prepared and cooked. After almost 3 years of planning, we have reached our goal for the first part of this project. Because this is just the beginning of our journey, trying to make this world a better place.