Return Visit of Rev Bill Murphy 11th July 2010
Bill Murphy and his wife Joy came to Bushey to take a United Service at St Andrews in May.
They are coming again, this time to Bushey & Oxhey, for our next United Service and are keen to display and sell some of their fairly traded, hand-made items from Kenya so the service will be followed by a ploughman’s lunch in the Meeting Point to give people from all three churches more of a chance to have a look.
The Karibuni Trust, was founded by Bill and Joy Murphy in 1995 after their daughter Corinne had a vision at the MAYC annual gathering of African Children asking for help.
The trust aims to raise awareness and money to support projects for children on the streets and in the slums of Kenya.
The projects care for children living on the streets and/or who are supporting themselves on the streets by begging, stealing, scavenging or prostitution.
The trust has no paid staff and therefore, apart from a small amount spent on office expenses all the money raised and donated is used to support the work in the projects.
The items they bring will include soapstone carvings, wood carvings, fabric wraps (not hand-made) baskets, jewellery and cards. Prices range from £1.50 for the cards to £45 for a 2 foot tall wood carving of two giraffes. They range from useful things like bowls, salad servers and candle holders to the ornamental - carvings of people and animals.
Joy writes:
All the carvings, jewellery and baskets are hand made using very basic tools—machete, axe, penknife– by the men in the cooperative and then sanded and polished by the women. All get a fair wage and are able to feed and educate their own families. The baskets and jewellery are made in women’s groups—many of them AIDS Widows in the slums or poor rural areas to help them support each other and their children. The cards made from batiks are made by refugees from other African countries who live unsupported by any benefits in Nairobi.
The profit we make goes back to Kenya through Kabuni Trust to support the children in the projects we are partners with.
Further information about the charity can be found on their website.
