About Hope Flowers School

Anne Bass, Juliette Elgrably and I went to the talks that Ibrahim did in Gloucestershire during his lates visit to England. We were so inspired by who Ibrahim is and the work that takes place at the Hope Flower School, as well as being deeply moved by the very difficult life situation of the Palestinians, that before we left the last talk we had made an outline for our fund raising event - a Middle Eastern inspired meal (cooked by the three of us and two very generous helpers), a performance of traditional and contemporary Egyptian dancing, an auction of some beautiful Moroccan pottery, and a dialog with Ibrahim and Palden, whom we connected with via zoom.

Our aim for the event was to create a space of warmth and generosity where people could meet and share. The event had a special focus on the Hope Flowers School and the situation of the Palestinians and at the same time was a space where all of humanity was held in love. It was very heart warming for us that a Jewish family came. During the evening something very special was created by and between everybody present - the room was alive with conversation, warmth, love, generosity and light. It was an evening that transformed and expanded us.

We started the evening by reading the following poem by Rumi, which for us both describes the intent of the evening and well as what is alive in Ibrahim and the Hope Flower School.

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.

We sold 39 tickets and many people who were not able to come gave donations. We raised £3000.

Pia Poulsen