Thursday, January 11, 2007

Updates from Funyula



Only a few weeks since Kimberley sent her support to the women of Funyula, we have been able to get progress photos of the acerage that she sponsored. These women now have a generator, pumps, irrigation, fertiliser and seeds to be able to plant this acre of land and grow crops to raise money for school fees and other necessities.

Felix returned to Funyula this week from Nairobi to document the progress, and here is what he just sent us.
Its amazing to be able to track this kind of work so easily thanks to Technology, but moreso thanks to the incredible dedication of Felix in kenya who tirelessly works to make our job as supporters so much more enjoyable.
Thanks Felix.
Q x

Monday, January 08, 2007

Thanks to our sponsors and donors...keep up the great support!

This is a special note to thank our sponsors and supporters of A Grandmothers Tribe.

Wishing you all a very happy new year, and on behalf of Dean, Felix, Susie and the team in Kenya whom we have had the great fortune of working with, thanks very much for your support. Your donation, best wishes, emails, connections and ideas have been the most awesome contribution to this project!

Dean and I got back from Kenya a few days ago after what was a wonderfully eye opening, life enriching experience. It’s hard to describe in words the way people live there – thank goodness we’re making a film so we can show you instead of tell you :) We were talking with friends when we got back and I think the whole thing was a bit like a mini-miracle really. We didn’t lose anything, we didn’t get sick, we weren’t harassed (much), we had the perfect fixer (Felix) and crew, and we found the most wonderful grannies and their families. I find it hard to imagine what we might have found if we hadn’t enlisted the support of Felix in Nairobi.

We feel that this project is definitely on the right track. We haven’t had to push too hard to make anything work, which is a good sign. The film definitely wants to be made and these people are definitely worth helping out.

On top of being able to shoot 53 hours of footage in very interesting villages and slums in Kenya, we were also able to provide assistance personally to a couple of grannies and their communities. One of my greatest lessons in being there in the capacity of a humanitarian worker is learning “HOW” best to help. Handing over cash can often be disastrous, and ruin peoples lives and their communities. So with the careful guidance of Felix and the locals, we were able to assess the best way to help. Our conclusion was to do things that give people a hand up and not a hand out...the classic story of teaching man to fish! So with that in mind, we were able to sponsor the planting of an acreage plantation for 30 grannies to raise money to “get ahead” and send their grandchildren to school (thank you Kimberley and family), provide some xmas gifts to various grannies, buy a couple of mattresses for a few grannies to sleep on so they can rest better and care better for the younger children, and sponsor education for a couple of teenagers in the slum who care for their bed-bound granny.

The challenge we faced experiencing such widespread poverty is the amount of it - it was quite crippling. So the best thing to do is to understand that we may not be able to help all 800,000 in Kibera slum, or to build a home for every person in the village..but to know that by helping one or two, they in turn will be stronger and help more of those around them.

One of the most touching moments for me was when Malcolm, one of our Kibera security boys told me as I was leaving that in all his years of growing up in Kibera he had never thought about giving anything back to his people...and after working with us, he felt strongly that he wanted to try to do something to make Kibera a better place to live. He wants to help someone with the small amount of money he has, or maybe even mentor someone. Very cool!

So, thanks everyone, and we wish you all a prosperous, rewarding and very happy and healthy 2007! We’re into the scripting and editing phase and will keep you posted over the next 3-4 months on the completion of this film.

Support is continually welcomed as we continue to cover post-productions costs such as translations, editing and so on. Please pass on this information to your friends and families if you think they would be interested in joining our sponsors club.

Regards,
The AGT team.. xx