Let's help Yemane
These projects stem from the desire to help Yemane, an Ethiopian friend involved in the civil war that is afflicting the population of Tigray.
He had a tourist agency and, at the end of 2019, he was helping me plan my trip to Ethiopia. Then the pandemic upset our plans, our lives. But the worst was yet to come.
In the autumn of 2020, a civil war broke out in the Tigray area. He, along with many others, loses everything, work, home, loved ones. We speak, he writes me that the situation is dramatic, that he no longer has a home and that he needs money to eat, to live. I do what I can, but it's not much.
So, one day, while I was on the beach collecting logs, I came across some pieces of a boat. I recognize them. They were pieces of the boat that landed in Ribera last year, bringing with it so many poor migrants.
And then it occurs to me that I could have helped my friend. By creating something with those pieces of the boat and giving him all the proceeds from the sale.
So from some wood that had seen so much suffering, I tried to bring out something beautiful.