Grandmother's are the best! Go give your granny a hug!!!
We're in Busia at a village at the moment and will be here for a week in total. It's perfect. Then we're off to Kisumu and then Nakuru. (All this is west Kenya) The grannies came together yesterday in a gathering, one they usually have on tuesdays, with the purpose of building strength and sharing their burdens. With some of the help our sponsors have given, we were able to by each granny one bag of flour, one of sugar, and a tub of cooking fat. (Total cost 9,000 shillings) Ontop of that we gave them one litre of Paraffin which will help their grandchildren study by light when it gets dark.
Felix and Susie's work here with Voiceless is, in my opinion, the perfect approach to building sustainability for these communities without intruding on their normal ways of life.
They have so far built a pilot project - one home for a granny (Mama Frida) and it only cost $2100 US to build! And then they bought 10 cows for 10 grannies and those who missed out will take the offspring when these ones mature.
So we're back to basics here, but I am loving being able to stop and take a good look at how humans survive even in the most simple environments. Part of me envies the organic, natural way they live - sometimes I question whether we're that much better off in our busy, technologically bound world. Anyway, the point is, we're having an amazing experience and the story will be a beautiful one.
Thanks for all your ongoing support and drop us a line sometime.
All our love Dean and Q xx (And Felix and Susie from www.voicelesschildren.org - and Ndungu our driver). From Busia, Kenya.
3 comments:
Qiu & Dean...
This is an amazing posting! How thrilling to be making such authentic connections... so respectful of the grandmothers and their children.
We are 'in action' here in Canada to support your effort and have now logged TWO events to participate and bring awareness to your work. Debbie and I have tag-teamed at the Vancouver World Aids Forum and a fundraiser for the 'Van Go Gos' (a grandmothers group who participated in the Aids Event with Stephen Lewis last summer). We made a LOT of connections and those are being followed up.
People want to know that they are helping directly! We may need a warehouse.
Thank you for making the effort to keep us posted on your amazing adventure!
The fact that there haven't been any 'comments' posted doesn't mean we haven't been reading. (Finally created the account... and it's a GO.)
I am sending you and the grandmothers and their children BIG hugs from my heart!!!
Dear Elaine, Thanks so much to you all for your ongoing support! I can assure you that if it were you here with these grannies yesterday and today, you would probably have been fighting the tears like I was :) But it was beautiful.
One thing I should mention is that since i got here i have realised that more often than not, shipped goods to africa are never seen by those who need it most. For many reasons really - but often people cannot afford the duty that must be paid at this end, the officials require bribing and so on. So if people want to help people here, the best thing is for us to donate funds and work with people like Susie and Felix whom we trust and know and have them continue reporting to us. ontop of that, we're supporting the african economy!
For example, today, aftrer visiting Frida, we decided to buy her and her grandson Emmanuel a bed each (matress). Until now they have used straw which was all they could afford. Help up and not hand out is definitely the way to think - by helping people get strong, we're helping them make their lives great and live with progress.
Its just so amazing to be a tiny part of it all.
All our love D&Q
For some reason, I forgot all about this blog. It's great to hear all the progress! Exciting!!!
I usually tell documentary producers that when you're out there, you're human beings first, producers second. But from what I've seen so far, I don't think I need to tell you guys that. :)
Have a great time and keep us updated when you can.
Charles
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