Birthday idea that became a community lifeline

To celebrate her 30th birthday Amy Trumpeter decided to travel to Rwanda to help the victims of the genocide. What she found changed her life. Catherine Scott reports.

Most people plan a big bash to celebrate their 30th birthday – not Amy Trumpeter. The teacher from York decided that she wanted to help the victims of the Rwandan genocide.

So instead of a party and presents she asked friends and family to donate towards her trip.

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“I’d been teaching my students about the Rwandan genocide in religious studies and the more I talked about it the more I really wanted to do something to help,” explains Amy.

So last June, Amy, who was working in London at the time, travelled to Kigali in Rwanda, to support women who had survived the 1994 genocide.

Her volunteering project was organised through Global Volunteer Network, and their partner charity was FVA (Faith Victory Association) in Kigali. Amy’s project involved supporting women who were victims of gender-based violence.

“Although I thought I knew a lot about the effects of the genocide, nothing prepared me for what I found.

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“Even after all these years the aftermath of what happened is everywhere. The women bear the physical and mental scars of what happened. Many of the women were raped and are in desperate need of counselling. Many others have been split from their families.

People respond when they see a crisis but then they seem to forget about the people who are left – the survivors then become the victims.”

But it was meeting one particular woman on this trip which would change Amy’s life forever.

“I met an amazing woman called Habiba. She was pregnant during the genocide, but lost her baby because there was no access to healthcare, and she needed a midwife.

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“All of her family were killed during the violence of 1994. She came out of it believing that she had no living relatives left. In 1996, she got a phone call to say that there was some good news.

“She didn’t believe it, because she said after 1994 it felt like nothing good could ever happen to her.

“Yet, the phone call was to tell her that she had a surviving relative – her brother was still alive.

“This made her so happy that she cried, and it gave her hope for the future.

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“While I was out there my sister had her first baby and I cried because I was so happy that I was an auntie. Habiba asked why I was crying and I explained. She said she knew how I felt as she had cried for joy when she heard her brother was alive. We have no idea what they’ve been through. She is so positive and smiles all the time despite what she has been through. I have so much respect for her.”

Habiba does beading to try to survive, but the lack of a tourist trade in Rwanda means that she struggles to sell her work in her own country.

“I loved her beaded pens so much, and was amazed by her courage and determination, so I decided to support her,” explains Amy.

“We went to the local market together, and I micro-financed her beading by spending just £20 on the beads and equipment that she needed to continue her business.

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“I made a promise to her that I would sell them back in the UK.”

Habiba now sends about 30 pens each month to sell in Britain.

“Selling just 10 pens every month, pays for her children to go to school for a term, and helps her to buy food and clothing.”

Amy returned from Rwanda after her three-week volunteering trip and tried to settle back down to her teaching life, while also selling pens for Habiba.

But she found it impossible to go back to her old life.

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“I never thought I would meet someone who had such a profound effect on me. I was a teacher and I thought that was going to be my life. Then I met Habiba and it all changed,” she says.

“When I got back I couldn’t just leave it. I felt that I had to do something more, something long-term that would help other women like Habiba.

“It wasn’t just about dishing money out – that isn’t what they need. They need something sustainable, something that will enable them to help themselves.”

Amy gave up her well-paid London teaching job, moved to York and set up a Fairtrade business importing and selling crafts from the women of Kigali.

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“I kept getting inquires from people asking me whether I could get more things like bags and jewellery and so it grew from there.”

Amy set up Kigali Crafts, a Fairtrade business.

“It is not a charity,” explains Amy. “I want it to run as a business. It needs to make money which will go back to the communities.” Amy doesn’t pay herself a wage yet and teaches three days a week to pay the bills.

“I also want to keep going into schools to tell people about Habiba and just how we can make a difference.”

When Amy returned to Rwanda in April this year, to continue the project, she was amazed at what she found.

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“Habiba’s house had electricity, and her children were attending school. It really has made a difference.”

Amy bought Habiba a sewing machine with some of the profits she made from selling her pens.

Habiba is passing on her knowledge to other women in the community and Amy now sells craft goods which support about 65 families.

“Kigali Crafts has grown – and sells hand-woven baskets, Rwandan sisal earrings and wood carvings, amongst many other amazing hand-made products.

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“We are eco-friendly and love the fact that our craftsmen use recycled products.

“Kigali Crafts now supplies to several York-based businesses, including Ethical ONE Boutique, Bolsita Bags and The Gift Gallery (items handmade in the UK from Rwandan beads).

“Profits from the project go towards the running costs of the Fairtrade business. This includes tools, resources, postage and packing to and from Rwanda and insurances.”

Amy hopes to get back to Rwanda again soon.

“The fact it now supports 65 families brings a lot of responsibility with it,” she explains.

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“It has to survive and I have to make sure that the right business skills are there to ensure it does, that is another thing we are having to teach the women.”

Amy admits that she does miss her teaching job in London at times.

“I do miss seeing the kids but they are all really proud of me and send me messages on Facebook. I think in some ways it has inspired them to realise what you can do to help others.”

But she says her family are still very surprised at her decision.

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“They think I am crazy giving up my job teaching, as a head of department I was earning a decent salary, to move north and set up a Fairtrade business.

“But London was just too stressful, everything is about work, work, work. York is a Fairtrade city and as such it has made it easier for me to get the crafts into some of the shops.”

Amy hopes that the business will grow further and that she will be able to help more women change their lives.

“I have changed Habiba’s life,” she said,” but she has also changed mine.”

www.kigali-crafts.co.uk

Up to one million died in massacres

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The Rwandan genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda.

Over about 100 days (from the assassination of Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira on April 6) through mid-July, more than 500,000 people were killed, says Human Rights Watch. Estimates of the death toll have ranged between 500,000 and one million, or as much as 20 per cent of the country’s population.

It was the culmination of long-standing ethnic tensions between the minority Tutsi, and the majority Hutu peoples.

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