Fundraising events for the Braille Printer Project

Mississauga – September 27, 2009


This first event was a huge success! We had organized a special fair where nine vendors came to sell their products and donate a portion of their profits to GDF. We rented The Institute of Holistic Nutrition campus as a venue, and all of our vendors were women who run their own small businesses. At the end of the day, we had raised $839 for the Braille Printer Project.

Vendors: Anjum Madan of Silpada Jewelry, Sonia Madan of the Canadian Reiki Association, Lisa Sinichko of Epicure Selections, Cheryl Trott of Crossconnect Associates: Fair trade bags from India, Nidhi Kohli from Yoga with Nidhi, Kinnery Ganatra, a henna artist; Virginia Pumphrey of Healthy Lives, Dorothy Booker of Xocai Chocolate, Nadine Junger, a Reiki master and artist; and Pace Fitness, who volunteered to help out and donate 50% of their profit from the sale at the event.

Special Mention- Volunteers: We received strong support from the Kaczmarek family: Penny, O kenwa and Norma, the Madan family: Anjum and Sonia Aunty, Zeenia and Natalia Kola, Armeen Khan, and Fahim and Raihan Ahmed.

Donors: Thanks to all our donors we will did extremely well that evening. We’d like to thank Haji, Shaheda and Zaki Ameen, Jai and Rose Jainaraine, and Nick and Angela Solomos for their generous support.

Hamilton – October 17, 2009 


Jesmin and Ashfaqul Haq opened their doors to welcome another successful Canadian fundraising event at their home in Hamilton. By inviting 40+ people and providing space for our vendors, she allowed us to raise $600 for the printer project.

Vendors for this event: Anjum Madan of Silpada Jewelry, Sonia Madan of the Canadian Reiki Association, who donated 100% of her sales; CrossConnect Associates, Shaista Osman, a henna artist; Indika Miranda of Home Décor, Cheryl Trott of Crossconnect Associates: Fair trade bags from India, Nidhi Kohli of Yoga with Nidhi, and Epicure Selections.

Toronto – Anand Mela [Sacksville Street] October 24, 2009

Thanks to Rony Ahmed from Áajkal’Newspaper ’we got a free booth at the Anand Mela. Although this effort was not as successful as the previous events, we would like thank Sania Ameen and Mahbuba Nahid for their voluntary support. Crossconnect Associates and Epicure Selection were our vendors.

Meadowvale, Mississauga – October 29, 2009


Nahid is a member of National Inclusion and Diversity Council at GE Canada. The Committee organized an event to acknowledge people with disabilities and provide information to GE employees. Nahid and GDF volunteers had a booth that assisted the fundraising efforts for the Braille Printer Project.

Vendors: Epicure Selections, Xocai and Sonia Madan participated to help raise funds. In just two hours we managed to raise $100.

Special thanks to Kelly Sudsbury for her support and also to our volunteers: Tanseer Kalami, Dianne Frost, Aubrey and Tsong.

Riff Presents Omor Ekushey Concert @ the Elmocambo – Toronto on Feb 18th 2010

Asif Farooq from RiFF arranged a full Bangla Rock concert in memory of February 21st, 1952. It is also RiFF’s effort to support the young Bengali performers in Toronto. The proceeds from the ticket sale will be donated to Green Disabled Foundation of Bangladesh. This is RiFF’s effort to support Mr. and Mrs. Yamin’s initiative to purchase a Braille Printer for the blind children of the foundation. Asif Farooq and Abdullah Choudhury Tahseen, the founder of RiFF generously donated over $1,100 toward the Braille Printer Project.