Sababu

I stated earlier that we might visit the Sababu Clothing Business.  This is a company that was created in Mali by a couple from Omaha.  This couple recently returned to Omaha and spoke at Christ Community Church a few months ago. 

Sababu Conscious Clothing was created to bring hope to the people of Mali, Africa. Through employment, educational and healthcare programs, Malians have an opportunity to improve living conditions for themselves, their extended families and their communities as a whole.

You can visit the web site of this company at http://www.sababuclothing.com/

You can sign up for a “Shirt of the Month Club” where you get 3 undershirts delivered to your door every 3 months for $22.  Also, Parables sells the Sababu t-shirts.

This article was posted on the news in May 2011:

OMAHA (KPTM) - On April 25, 2007 Dusty Reynolds was at home watching the American Idol Gives Back special. His wife Julia has just gotten off work as a nurse.

"I just started breaking down crying," Dusty said. "And she asked who died? I said I'm just compelled by what we're seeing on American Idol."
The couple was so compelled they decided to go to Mali, West Africa in January 2009.

"With both of us being rooted around here, it was difficult to just get on a plane and go," said Dusty. "It was a process."

Dusty started a T-shirt company called Sababu.  Julia would make medical records for the employees. Both jobs would be easier said than done.

"There were days we wanted to get on a plane and come home," said Julia. "But we felt we needed to finish what we came to do. We're 100 years more advanced than they are. They don't even know what Type 1 Diabetes is. That's dear to me because I'm Type 1. They didn't understand what it meant because the kids over there die who are Type 1. They don't know why; they just say they fell ill."

"Julia was the rock through all of it," Dusty said. "She said we're here for a reason and in a local language, Sababu means reason."

Sababu eventually got off the ground and now employs 30 Africans. Everyone who buys a T-shirt can see how they've helped the employees.

"Each shirt has a code and you can enter that code on our website to see every hand that's touched that T-shirt since it was made," said Dusty. "It gives the name of employee and a story about each employee. Every shirt has that unique code called 'Twedel'.  It means “together we develop life."

The Reynolds returned home this past January and recently bought a house in Omaha. They say the memories they made over in Africa will never be forgotten.
"You're excited to see family but you feel like you made family over there," Dusty said. "It's still an emotional struggle on how to fit into this American culture yet not disengage from the culture over there. When you get to know these people, you start carrying their burdens and to know you're on the opposite side of the pond makes it difficult at times."

Dusty and Julia say you don't have to go all the way to Africa to help those less fortunate.
"I think it's really easy for people to think you have to hit a home run," said Dusty. "I don't think we hit a home run, but just every little bit makes a difference. Even if people want to just help teach our employees English, that makes a huge difference. If people see something on American Idol, like buy a mosquito net for ten dollars, that makes a huge difference. What we view as so small here is so big to the people over there who have little to nothing. I feel like we've done our part but I don't feel like we've finished. I feel like we're at the next chapter to where we need to still make an impact over there. It may not be as direct an impact, but we're doing our role to make sure it can keep going."

And thanks to the kindness of Dusty and Julia, dozens can keep going half a world away.