Murhaf Hamid is just 11 years old and was born in Sweden to Ethiopian parents. He lives in the south of the country. This year he took part in a Swedish annual charity event, raising money for a children’s charity by selling paper flowers (Majblomman – Mayflowers).

Although Hamid initially faced a "barrage of racism" while trying to sell the flowers, according to the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP), he still managed to smash a previous record for fundraising for the charity, which was set last year.

Hamid even built on his success in the last few days of the campaign, managing to almost double the amount of money he raised in a week. Partly because his initial setbacks, which he feared may have been due to racism, were written about online and went viral.

"This is totally outstanding. We have never ever seen anything like it before," Ase Henell, the head of the Majblomman charity told AFP. "Murhaf is one of those children that we normally would have helped. [Instead] he has helped himself and he has helped a lot of children in poverty in Sweden."

Selling to the Prime Minister

Hamid even managed to sell a flower to Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, news reports said. According to AFP, children sell the flowers both door-to-door and online. They are able to keep 10% of the money they collect and they are allowed to keep any tips they receive too.

The charity was founded in 1907 and fights child poverty in Sweden. It provides clothes and finances to help all children, regardless of their financial situation, participate in activities they would otherwise be excluded from, the charity says.

According to a press release from the charity, 10% of children in Sweden grow up in families that can’t afford basic necessities like rent, electricity, insurance and basic technology. For those children, Majblomman offers financial aids to cover the costs of after-school activities, adequate winter clothes or sports equipment.

The charity also says it works to improve the rights of children over all, and their living conditions. Apart from providing financial aid, the charity works to try to change policies and politics that affect children and children’s rights.

Research into child poverty and its consequences

The charity has a large network of volunteers and also researches in the field of child poverty and its consequences individual children and society at large.

Economic inequality in Sweden is growing, according to the charity. Between 2010 and 2015, Sweden sank from fifth place to 16th place on an index measuring children's economic conditions.

The majority of those who collect funds for the charity in the lead up to May are children aged between nine and 12. If you want to apply for help from Majblomman and you live in Sweden, the charity says that children under 18 can apply, often via local school nurses or the social welfare office.

According to the German news magazine Der Spiegel, on his first day of selling the flowers, Hamid was told by some adults to "get lost!" and only managed to sell a few flower broaches. But then, his experience was written up by a friend of the family on Facebook and went viral. The post, reports Spiegel, attracted some more racist comments, but also a huge wave of solidarity and donations. The head of the charity said that the things those adults are reported to have said to Hamid are so horrible, "I can’t even put those words in my mouth."

'It's about raising awareness'

A friend of Hamid’s family, Laila Rahman, who wrote the post about his experience on Facebook, told Spiegel that although Hamid was born in Sweden, his application for asylum has still not been completed after 12 years of living there. In Sweden, the law states that since his parents don’t have permanent residency, Hamid’s permanent right to remain is also in question.

Rahman said that although she had shared a lot of posts before, "nothing has ever gone this viral," reported AFP. Rahman felt that the attention given to the story was about much more than the sales Hamid was able to make. “It’s also raising awareness for the whole situation with a boy who was born in Sweden almost 12 years ago and his family’s [asylum] application still being processed."

The Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet suggest that Hamid asked his mother whether he would be able to buy residency out of the money he earned from his collection, but, to his dismay, his mother told him "no, unfortunately not." Instead, Hamid decided to buy some clothes, sport shoes and a mobile phone with some of his earnings, reported AFP.

The previous record for collection for the charity was set in 2022 by a ten-year-old boy who managed to raise around €11,400 (130,000 kronor), reports AFP. The annual campaign runs in Sweden for two weeks and closed this year on May 3.

With AFP