Video: Gabriel's Metal Works

Gabriel and his father make jewelry out of aluminum and brass. We spent some time watching them hammer, saw, and etch necklaces and earrings that we ordered- including some brand new designs.

-Kerbi

Team RETCo.

Gabriel's Metal Works

Our second interview and order day was spent with Gabriel, who runs his business with his father. These guys make our metal earrings and metal bracelets.

They work mostly with aluminum and brass and do everything by hand- sawing, etching, and hammering. Above: the guys working on one of the new necklaces we just ordered.

We got lots of footage of the guys at their work stations and also interviewed Gabriel. We asked him all about his jewelry, his story, and what he hopes for the future of his business.

Here is a great shot of Gabriel and his father. We love working with these guys and we are bringing back tons of beautiful jewelry to add to the store.

We're staying busy here in Nairobi!

-Kerbi
Team RETCo.

Media Monday: News that Rox

We were on Channel 2 News at 5pm yesterday. Thank you Roxanna for featuring us!



Have a great week!

-Team RETCo

Hey, I'm Edwin

Hey, I'm Edwin and I am the latest addition to Red Earth Trading Co. Being the new guy means that I am here to help with almost every aspect of the organization.

My Red Earth story starts three years ago. After being a full time touring musician for four years, I suddenly found myself without a band and without direction. I decided to spend some time traveling to try to find the path that God had for me. During my travels I met many new people and also became somewhat enamored with the South, particularly with Nashville, TN. One of the people I met was Kerbi, so when I decided to relocate to Nashville from California we became friends.

It didn't take to long for the music industry to pull me back in and I start touring again soon after. Although I did enjoy what I was doing, I found myself once again looking to do something that had more purpose. I went to an event and saw how much dedication Kerbi had to Red Earth, so I decided to find out more about it. All I had to do was sit down once with Travis to know that this was what I had been looking for. Needless to say, God will open doors if you ask him to.

I am very excited and look forward to what God has in store for all of us here at Red Earth Trading Co.


Edwin

Hi! I'm Maggie.

Hey everybody! My name is Maggie and I am the Office Manager here at Red Earth Trading Co.  I help with anything going on around the office or lend a hand in everything from tagging product to setting up house parties.  My main responsibilities are to keep everyone organized, maintain the finances, and work on everything else administrative. 

My story with Red Earth begins quite a while back even though RETCo. is a newer company.  As soon as I graduated from college with a degree in Psychology I had the desire to travel and see new places and learn about different cultures.  I began my travels by taking the excruciating 18 hour flight to Australia with my best friend.  When I returned home, I knew that trip had sparked something in my life that would affect who I was to become.  A few years later I decided to live abroad in Cyprus, a small island in the Mediterranean Sea, where I attended a small discipleship program. From there I traveled to Israel, Germany, and Greece.  All together I was abroad seven months. This trip added fuel to the fire and really ignited my passions for seeing the beauty in cultures and countries other than my own.  I knew that my life would be spent doing whatever I could to help and serve others.

In February 2009, Travis and I met and in October 2009, we were married.  We quickly learned that we shared the same passion for helping others and seeing others lives changed for the better.  I started helping with Global Support Mission and now with Red Earth Trading Co.  Earlier this year we went to Uganda and Kenya for two and a half months.  Even though I had only heard stories about these places, when I got there I felt at home.  I was so moved by the kindness and joy in the hearts of the people that we began to meet and work with.  What I love most about what we do is being able to capture beauty and stories from a different culture and bring that back to the US.  Whether it be the actual jewelry or the story of a persons' life transformed, it makes me really excited to see where this will take us all. 

Maggie
Office Manager

Hello I'm Katie

Hello, my name is Katie!  This is my family, my husband Chris and my two boys Kolby and Logan.  We live in Uganda, Africa working with Global Support Mission as their International Coordinators on the ground.

We have known Travis and been friends with him for many years.  Back in 2007 Chris and I were leading missions trips through our church and we were looking for a place to go that summer.  Travis came down to the coast and we reconnected and he told us about Global Support and we all decided that it would be amazing to go to Uganda and support GSM and the organization, Bringing Hope to the Family, that they were assisting.  So, in July 2007, we came and life as we knew it would never be the same.  While we were on that trip God spoke to us and Travis that we were to come and live in this tiny village in Western Uganda called Kaihura.  When we returned to the States, the journey of shutting down our lives there and working towards setting up our lives here had begun.

In January 2009 our family officially moved to Uganda, and the life unknown was beginning.  Our time here so far has been amazing.  We love working for GSM and we love seeing its vision unfold.  We work here and serve alongside Bringing Hope to the Family doing whatever we can to help them accomplish their vision.  We do that in many different ways.  We work toward helping them create systems and organization.  Through Know.Think.Act we help fullfil their vision toward community development.  The ultimate goal is to get them to be self sufficient through cost reduction and income generating projects.   And this is where Red Earth Trading Co.'s vision comes into play also.

This past summer while Travis, Brady and others were in Uganda RETCO was birthed.  There are so many talented people who can do such incredible things with the local materials that they have available to them.  But, like Travis stated in his blog, there is a very limited market.  So why not help them and help ourselves which will in turn help them even more because more money will just be poured right back in.   It is a win, win, win situation!

RETCO not only has the vision to just help provide a new market for these Artisans, but also help them create new and better product.  So this is where I come in.  Along with the work my husband and I do for GSM, I also have been doing a lot of work for RETCO.  Here in Kaihura, Bringing Hope had a tailoring shop that they set up for income generation and to also create jobs for some of the best students that graduated from their vocational school.  Unfortunately this shop was causing them to lose money rather than make money.  But, this year I have made it a big project of mine on behalf of GSM and RETCO to help them get this business on the right foot.  This is easier said than done, but we have made tremendous headway and I am so pleased at the progress that has been made.  I have worked with them to create many new and better quality products.  Some of these products you can see when you visit a RETCO party or stand.  I am really looking forward to this next year to see what new things come about.  I also work with all the other partners we do business with and they are all so excited and so grateful for this partnership they now have with RETCO.  It is truly a life changer for them.  Thank you so much for supporting us as we do everything we can to support them.  I hope you love and enjoy the products.  There are amazing stories behind them!

stay adventurous>

Katie
East Africa Product Manager

Hey, I'm Brady

Hey!  My name is Brady and I'm in charge of pretty much anything media related around here…  My involvement with Global Support Mission (and later Red Earth Trading Co.) began in the winter of 2006.  I was in college and was roommates with Travis Gravette when he told me of an upcoming trip he was planning to Uganda.  So after thinking and praying about it, I decided to tag along.  

At the time I was studying recording engineering outside of Nashville and I was trying to figure out how I could make myself useful and how I could use my talents to further the work of GSM.  Since I naturally gravitate towards all things media, filming ended up being a perfect fit.  So a couple months before we left for Uganda, we bought a camera.  Having rarely even held a video camera before, I started messing around and making short videos around town.  As terrible as most of them were(and trust me, they were terrible…), it gave me a chance to get more familiar with filming and we ended up with over 30 hours of footage from that first trip.  From that point, I was hooked.  

After that first trip, I decided that working for GSM was what I wanted to do full time and over the next three years I  worked towards that goal.  During that time I spent tons of time teaching myself video editing, animation, graphic design and web development.  By early 2010 I was able to stop working side jobs just to scrape by and this allowed me to put all of my energy and efforts towards Global Support.  

Later that year, we created a "Direct-Trade" company called Red Earth Trading Co.  It was something that was birthed naturally from GSM, through the relationships we built and the needs we saw on the ground.  

The way we've set up our operations at RETCo is truly awesome!   Through our sales, we are able to pour 100% of our income back into Global Support and therefore back into the communities that we work in.  This creates a sustainability piece for not only the communities we work in, but also for GSM as a non-profit.  In turn, this allows us to put an even greater amount of our donor's gifts directly towards pressing needs!

All in all, the past few years have been an incredible adventure.  I never could have imagined how difficult it would be, but the challenges pale in comparison to the joy of seeing lives saved and communities transformed!  I can't wait to see where the coming months and years take us!

Brady

You can view our latest RETCo video here.