Baraq: from the English spelling of the Arab Name بارك / Bārak meaning "the blessed one" or "blessed", which is Baruch in Hebrew בָּרוּךְ. Bārak and Baruch are equivalent to the Latin Benedictus.
Baraq wants to promote creative talents and provide a platform to make their artistic skills as designers known beyond their borders.
We hold t-shirt design contests all over the world. The t-shirt designs refer to the country's current issues or the designer's individual situation, hopes and aims, thoughts and feelings. The winners are awarded a prize and are presented on our website.
Baraq wants to enlighten, stimulate interest, and promote exchange and understanding.
You can accompany us on our journey in our blog. We would like to awake your interest and curiosity to gather information about the living conditions of people in foreign countries. Together, we want to collect new ideas and exchange them. It is all about developing a mutual understanding, hearing different views, understanding other cultural traditions and customs, and respecting them.
Baraq wants to create a cross border community, based on mutual cooperation and solidarity.
Together with our participants, we hope to create a community of helpfulness and altruism towards our fellow human beings. This is achieved by Baraq donating € 6 per t-shirt sold to humanitarian projects, by supporting the winners with a prize and working towards further collaboration. In every country we hold a contest, we want to integrate people into our projects and open up an additional source of income for them. Most participants we met love their country. If they could earn enough to cover their needs, they would never leave their home country.
An example:
The first Cairo winner was Mahmoud: today, he works for Baraq. The same is true for a young artist from Alexandria. Both studied design and hope to gain a foothold in Europe. Having hope gives them courage. It gives them a vision of the future and makes them believe in themselves, and in the future. That is what we want: to carry on working with them in their countries. In Palestine, there is also a small family ready to work for Baraq. They will produce bracelets. We don't want to have come and gone without common responsibility.
To stress a sense of community, we have taken twelve nations on board and designed 12 t-shirts. One nation alone cannot achieve this on its own. It can only be done as a community. Baraq's commitment can only succeed when all parties involved play an active part. Baraq works like a cycle and is based on exchanging talent, perspectives and financial means. It is not only important, what we do, it is also crucial what you make out of it!
"We thank our German soldiers!"
Via the link on the t-shirt page you can access the German army's webpage and get information. The Baraq team also had to get sufficient information in order to design and get a feel for the t-shirt. We realised that we do not know enough about our army and our soldiers, even though there are not only young people in our team. We were really surprised about everything they have achieved abroad! The same is true for Germany. You will get to Berlin's aid association Arche via this link. On their website you can get information about the situation of children here in Germany. Further information about Egypt, Palestine, France, Italy, Spain, Australia, Canada, Austria, Denmark, America, The Netherlands, Belgium, and England.
We spent a long time considering how to pass on the message: stimulating interest in each other through exchange with other nations.
The best solution was a t-shirt.
You can wear it, to be FOR or AGAINST something, to say YES or NO, to capture attention for an issue or simply because you like the design. Baraq is donating € 6 for each t-shirt sold to humanitarian projects.
The idea was:
It is in your hands which country you want to support. Maybe you are flying to New York. We work with the organisation Coalition for the homeless. This organisation helps a great deal on the streets of New York. By owning a t-shirt "In Memory of 9/11", you wouldn't have to give money to people begging on the streets. You don't have to search annoyingly for coins or be scared to get your wallet out. You have already done your bit for humanitarian aid.
What do we aim for?
Philanthropy.
What is our concept?
Information.
What is our motivation?
Solidarity.
What do we hope for?
Democracy.
What do we believe in?
Justice.
What do we dream of?
Freedom and Peace.
We are not do-gooders. However, we don't want to live as if there was nothing to do.
Your Baraq team
