13/06/2024 – Himaya Haven provided Eid Baklava for Eid-Ul-Adha 2024 for HMP Birmingham and Swinfen Hall. These were freshly produced for us, so fresh we could smell the baklava through the packaging😍. We picked this up on Thursday and sorted it out ready for the prison Imam’s to pick up on Friday and Saturday. Birmingham prison also received a donation of biryani.
Unfortunately there was an error with the number of bakiava meaning we were short for one prison, causing a dilemma – when giving items into prison for a group, even if there is one short the rest will not be allowed to be given in. Therefore, our CEO had to rush round to find some more at an affordable price to make the numbers up. On the Friday we received a last minute request for Stoke Heath prison, so we organised mitai for them instead of baklava, as we have to preorder baklava which would not be possible.
Unfortunately there was an error with the number of bakiava meaning we were short for one prison, causing a dilemma – when giving items into prison for a group, even if there is one short the rest will not be allowed to be given in. Therefore, our CEO had to rush round to find some more at an affordable price to make the numbers up. On the Friday we received a last minute request for Stoke Heath prison, so we organised mitai for them instead of baklava, as we have to preorder baklava which would not be possible.
On the collection day of Saturday for what should have been a simple pick-up paved many challenges for our CEO. The gate to access our building was unable to open, there was heavy rainfall and large puddles in the way, meaning she had to collect the baklava through the use of someone else’s office who had access to the front of the building and carry the boxes back and forth across the road with the Imam from Swinfen Hall in order to get them into his car. From here they then had to collect the mitai. So for people who think it is easy, we like to remind you of the little challenges that come in the way of what should be just a simple task.
