Local Business Review of The Gifts of Life, Fair Trade Shop in North Conway, NH

When you hear her story you might think that Kim Tufts only knows how to live selflessly. Luckily for residents of several 3^rd world countries, your impression of her would be right.

Kim owns The Gifts of Life, Fair Trade shop in North Conway, NH. Inside the small store front on Main Street, all sorts unique and unusual items line the shelves. Purses made from recycled candy wrappers from Mexico, baskets from Africa, jewelry and so much more.

Owning her own business was never the plan for Kim, but then again feeling such compassion for people suffering around the world was never her plan either.

"A few years ago I read this book Left to Tell, this is about a Rwandan genocide survivor and it got under my skin enough to know that I need to try to do something to help. So originally what I did was set up a website to sell baskets that these surviving women were making so that they could support themselves."

With that website Kim was able to do a small part in helping the genocide victims, but she had a strong desire to do more. Despite facing obstacles in her own life, (her husband had a heart attack, and they lost their home to foreclosure) Kim decided to open a fair trade shop that help more than just those in Rwanda, she could help all sorts of artisans from all corners of the globe sell their wares.

"We opened the fair trade shop so we could help and now we've got things from Africa, and we've got things from Guatemala and we've even got some local artisans." says Kim.

But it was the story of a group of soap stone artists that touched Kim the deepest.

"Last year, in the beginning of the year in Kenya, there was a war, the post election violence and our soap stone artisans lost everything, they were burned out of their homes and most of their neighbors were killed and they were sent running and at that point I had to help them as best I could, so last winter we spent most of the time in here, doing raffles and fund raiser to try to keep them alive."

And keep them alive she did. With the help of a grant, she was able to get 20 families back to soap stone carving, so they could earn a living and rebuild their lives.

But tragedy would strike again, when the leader of this group, a man named Joseph, fell ill with Malaria. Kim knew if he died, all would be lost for this tiny village as he was the only educated one living there.

"So I told him as soon as you get better, we do need to start educating the women. And at that point we had just lost our home and we were trying to save them at the same time as going through the foreclosure. But it puts a whole new prospective on everything, so the materials things that we were losing when we were seeing these people here running for their lives, you wake up and you realize that there is a lot more to life than your house and these material things."

Luckily, Joseph recovered from his illness and with Kim's efforts raising money back here in the U.S., the village has started sending it's women and children to school.

"I wasn't sure how we would do it, but so far, we've gotten 2 women in school, we've got 12 orphans funded to take their exams so they can continue to secondary education. We've got three children in school being sponsored and we've got almost $2000 raised towards a clinic that we're building there."

The medical clinic is the latest thing Kim has learned that this part of Kenya needs. With no doctors or medical help in the village, residents have to travel miles to receive services. So for Kim, it made the most sense to help them establish a medical clinic nearby.

With the help of local school children donating their pennies and other fund raisers, Kim is working towards that goal. Once again the selfless attitude that has got her this far becomes clear.

"Everybody can make a difference, it doesn't take much. It takes heart, it takes compassion, um, just a need, a knowing that you want to do something to help. And each step leads to something else, I never dreamed a year ago, that I would be doing what I am doing now. "

　

For more information:
http://giftsoflife.ning.com/

To view a video essay of this story:
http://www.wmur.com/chroniclevideo/18956840/