Create your own unique piece of garment
Create your own unique piece of garment
Create your own unique piece of garment
PROJECTS
About GUP Projects
De Makers van GUP regularly organizes projects to support people facing difficulty to participate in society. These projects vary from small individual efforts all the way to large-scale initiatives (such as visiting refugee camps). The initial contact for this is usually made via our own network, via the media or via suggestions that we have received from you. When we believe we can help, we invite these people to discuss their needs with us over a cup of tea. If the meeting is successful, we launch a new project.
(We fund these initiatives by allocating a fixed percentage of our revenue).
Why do we do this?
Helping out others is what makes us humans human. It is also how we act personally in our ordinary lifes and we see no reason why a company should not do the same. Especially if it has the means to do so.
Digging one layer deeper, we do believe that "doing good, will bring one good". As such, the reward for our GUP projects will come, some day in one form or the other. And if it doesn't, that is also fine. (This is actually inspired by the Ubuntu philosophy, which we have embraced as one of our core principles).
But there is more to it. During these projects we hear beautiful stories. Stories from people that have had a very different path in life than you and we have had. Some of these touched us directly in our soul. At De Makers van GUP we use these anecdotes as a source of inspiration for our new designs. For us, running a GUP project is also an 'artistic date' at the same time.
In the (sub-)menu you will find an overview of our projects.
PROJECTS
"Sara the Artist"
Background
Sara, born in Damascus, Syria, grew up with a passion for drawing and dreamed of becoming an artist. But life took a different turn. It took several turns.
It was 2011 when the civil war started in Syria. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, and the lifes of many millions have been disrupted. The war also dominated most of Sara's youth and and early adult years. She was lucky to find a job that could just sustain her living expenses. But that was all, life was all about survival and her artist dreams had vaporized.
And then the COVID-19 pandemic struck, on top of the devastating war. With very prolonged lockdowns - Syria had no other means to counter the pandemic than this - Sara got into severe isolation. She decided to immerse herself into her old passion of drawing again and greatly refined her skills. She started selling personalized portraits, which brought in some cash for here and great joy to her customers.
Her world 'collapsed' when the war came so close that here husband was no longer secure. To live, he had to flee out of Syria. And Sara was left all alone. It took Sara a long, complicated and dangerous journey to join him in Den Bosch in the fall of 2022.
A remarkable gift
In was in the spring of 2023, when we met Sara for the first time at a language school in Den Bosch. Sara turned out to be a very modest and friendly person, disarming in every way. The way she, stumbling over her newly learned Dutch words, touched us. And so we got in contact.
To facilitate the conversation, we started drawing on a whiteboard. This worked well, but also initiated something we had not foreseen.
It was only a few days later that Sara decided to show us 'her drawings'. They gave us goosebumps; jaw-dropping good! Unaware of her past and any of her talents, we were flabbergasted by her portraits. They were detailed and lifelike. The emotions she had captured brought her artwork to life. We witnessed an incredible talent with a remarkable gift.
GUP Project
Sara is currently participating in the mandatory Dutch integration program ("inburgering") to help her become self-supporting and integrate into Dutch society. We saw this as the perfect opportunity to meet Sara over a cup of tea. She aspired to be an artist, and we needed a designer for our new wallpaper product line. Sara wanted to learn Dutch and gain experience in a supportive Dutch work environment, and we could offer just that.
We quickly contacted the local municipality about "Sara the artist." After submitting a proposal and discussing it, we all agreed this was a great opportunity. We formalized our agreement with a contract and launched our first GUP project with Sara.
In this project, we've asked Sara to pursue her dream as an artist with us. Inspired by the work of Maria Sibylla Merian, a pioneering female artist and researcher (1647-1717), Sara will design artwork for our new wallpaper collection. By doing so, Sara is pioneering too. In a lot of ways.
For De Makers van GUP the investment in this project is mainly in-kind; we simply invest a lot of hours in Sara as we believe in her and her talent. Sure, we use this time to discuss the progress of her wallpaper project, but most of the time is invested into making Sara self supporting in a society that is completely new to her. Her talents do not need to be unlocked anymore.
We hope this project is a big steps forwards for Sara to be able to build her most beautiful life independently, just like we all try to do.
PROJECTS
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