Ala Khalil
Fighting COVID-19 crisis with art

I would like to start with a quote that I found online and that I immediately fell in love with: “If Coronavirus didn’t make you a better person then you didn’t learn a thing from this experience”. I cannot agree more!
We are all affected by COVID-19 and we are learning and will have to learn a lot from this experience.
On the positive side, we all learned the hard way, the difference between what we consider as needs and what are necessities! We all learned that our house is our true centre and that cooking skills are definitely a must.
On the negative side, most of businesses have been strongly affected, which has dramatic consequences on people, on families. As this situation is critical for most of us, we must find a way to collectively help each other to overcome this situation. Now more than ever!
There are many existing initiatives that have been set up by great people. Yet I believe we can do even more.
We are not helpless.
I am sure all of us love to help one another, but not quite sure about how!
My desire is to supporter our country and encourage other people to do so in a simple way, I came up with BLESSED JORDAN, where people can help one another through art.

50% of each payment will be directly transferred to benefit our country's informal workers and their families who are affected by the COVID-19 crisis, as for the other 50% will be used to cover the production, design, delivery and online promotion costs.
Why targetting the informal workers:
In Jordan, more than 40% of the population works in the informal sector. These workers income is generated through their daily individual hard work, which means there are no companies or organizations that invest in their social security nor health insurance. During the crisis, these workers where forced to stay at home with no work, and therefore no income to bring back to their families.

I launched this collection in the beginning of the Holy Month of Ramadan, as I cannot stand the idea of people not having the means to buy food and first necessities. I believe that we can do better when we are united. The collection consists in 4 artworks and will be followed with another 4.
All artworks will be displayed on different items (mugs, tote-bags, posters and postcards).
Here is the link to shop from BLESSED JORDAN collection:
https://www.alakdesignhouse.com/shop
The donation will go directly to daily laborers project of Naua,
here is a link of the project:
https://www.naua.org/ngo/ائتلاف-مؤسسات-خيرية-69405
Thank you to my friends and my family, and to all who will support this initiative to the benefit of the informal workers in Jordan.
With a special thanks to Nina Muflieh for her continuous support.
Ala Khalil