Jackson & Filbert's Story
Our two exceptional wood carvers, Jackson and Filbert have sent us videos to share with you. They tell us a little bit about themselves, how they learnt to carve and what it means for them to have work.
The videos are in Kiswahili so we have translated them for you below. We hope you enjoy their story.
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JACKSON ALYOSI KAMBEJU
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My name is Jackson Alyosi Kambeju. I was born in a small village called Mtopwa, in the district of Newalya.
I started primary school in 1979 and I finished in 1985. However, I was unsuccessful in carrying on with higher studies so I decided to come to Mtwara. I followed my maternal aunt. When I reached here, my aunts husband was a craftsman.
I realised since I couldn’t do higher studies I decided to learn to be a craftsman, so my uncle taught me in 1987. He taught me for 1 year and I learnt, and was successful and became a complete craftsman.
Until this day I feel confident and I trust in this teaching. I am very grateful to him for teaching me. So now I continue to carve different products. It is a good job and I like doing it and I have to continue it. Thank you.
FILBERT EMMANUEL KAZUMARI
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My name is Filbert Emanuel. I was born in the region of Mtwara, Tanzania.
I am a carver. I started this work when I was 15 and in school. My father taught me this. After I finished school, I could not continue with schooling / education, so I decided it would be better to start work as a carver/craftsman.
We are grateful to QÄSA QÄSA for making the order of these Lemon Squeezers which we are continuing to carve. We also make different things for QÄSA QÄSA such as bowls, coffee scoops and other such things. So we are saying thank you very much for this order. It gives us money to buy food and pay school fees for our children and other things they need for school like notebooks.
We pray that many of you customers in the UK buy lots of products to support this so that we continue to get more orders. We are grateful to QÄSA QÄSA for giving us this order.