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JOSEPH AND THE FATRINE SELF HELP GROUP OF KENYA
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ABOUT JOSEPH AND HIS FAMILY
My connection with Joseph has been ongoing for about 1 1/2 yrs. They have been our soapstone artisans for our shop in NH. This is a long story, but as we are desperately trying to help them.. people want to know all about our relationship, all the hows and whys so I would like to offer as much, in as short a way as possible, not to bore you with details, even though I have LOTS of them.
When I first started with Joseph, it was funny, he would call from Africa and I would say.."Joseph, please email.. between the bad connection, and your accent, I can't understand you." It was hard for him to understand and he would call anyway.. and I would tell him again....on and on, you get the picture!
Then after the post election violence started in Kenya and we lost touch with him and I had the Kenyan Red Cross sending out tracers to find this family... and he finally got to a computer to contact me, and then eventually called me... I have to say I just cried, to hear his voice. Funny how things change.
Sitting in the safe, warm homes we live in here.. and watching terrorized families running for their lives, being close enough to hear their pleas, but far enough away to not be able to help, is heart wrenching.
This family have become my own. I have watched them, Joseph, his ill wife, their three little girls running for their lives, trying to get to the boarders into refugee camps into Tanzania, and Uganda... and unable to make it due to the violence and danger. They are internally displaced persons.. and not getting the help that the refugee camps are getting. They are living in the forest out of town in his deceased fathers home.. unlike many others reported to be living under the trees with NO shelter at all. The large humanitarian agencys have not even been able to get into this area due to the violence and danger.
We have been holding raffles in our shop, and sending whatever we can send to keep them fed at this point... and my dreams are to see them safe, and fed, until we can help them get on their feet and back in business to support themselves like they were before the war/ethnic cleansing. The Fatrine Self Help group employed 12 other families and if we can get them all back on their feet... we will be saving at least 13 families in this war-torn area. My dream is for North Conway Village to go global, and help this war-torn village in Kenya get back on their feet.....And then from there.. I guess my biggest dream would be to someday be able to meet them face to face, to be able to hold them all.
Joseph is just a couple yrs older than my son, Zac. It's very difficult to imagine loosing your father, at age 13. Basically Joseph has been supporting his mother, 3 or 4 younger sisters, when he was younger.. and now his 3 little girls and his dear wife, Peris.
This post election violence has done horrible things to these people and not only Josephs family of course, or the Fatrine Self Help Group, but all of Kenya, and spilling into other parts of Africa. If we can get Fatrine back together, Josephs family will be self-supporting, and all the other families in the group will be getting back on their feet.. saving many lives!
People ask the question to me sometimes.. "why should we care about these people when we have so much poverty and people that need help right here in our country?" Family is Family in my eyes... brothers and sisters, separated only by distance.... We are all one... connected by one greater power, one source of energy.. we are all God's children.. I could no more turn my back on these families as I could my own children... when I see their pain.
When we have Josephs family and group on their feet... I am sure there will be more children that we will be trying to help. I also believe, and I know it is not an original concept... that if we all helped each other, there might be Peace On Earth... what a wonderful dream!
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ALL OF THE IMAGES BELOW WERE TAKEN BEFORE THE WAR.. LET'S GET THESE SMILING MEN AND WOMEN BACK TO WORK!!
This is Joseph and the Fatrine Self Help group mining soapstone in Kenya.
All the guys hard at work.. harvesting soapstone.
The Women of Fatrine Self Help Group, washing and processing soapstone.
Fatrine Self Help group mineing soapstone in Kenya to be processed and made into beautiful soapstone products for resale... around the world.
That's my boy Joseph with the big smile, making us beautiful soapstone products.
