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

One Woman's Way of Giving the Gift of Life

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.