As an artist, Semret works with two mediums – words and wool. Semret began her career as a journalist, but her reporting was one of the reasons that she felt insecure and was forced to flee her home country in 1996. Although Semret continues to write books, and contribute to magazines, her main source of income for the past 15 years has been through weaving beautiful wool carpets, a skill she learned from Kenyans in Nairobi after arriving there as a refugee. Semret now works out of a workshop that she set up at a local church.
“My goal is to mentor other refugees so that they can learn these (weaving) skills. I want to have a successful business, and be self-reliant,” Semret told us.
Semret is a true craftswoman, sourcing the wool from local farmers, and dying and spinning all of her raw materials before transforming them into beautiful carpets – all by hand. Although Semret’s work always provided an essential source of income for her family, her role became even more critical after her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2015, impairing his ability to move and perform daily tasks on his own.
Semret’s primary clients are local hotels and custom orders that she says are able to sustain her and her family. Although she loves her work, Semret told us that the financial burden of the family weighs heavily on her and also affects her family members.
Like Semret’s family, many of the refugee families that RefugePoint supports in Nairobi are female-headed households. RefugePoint services are always tailored to the specific needs of our clients. In Semret’s case, her church was already supporting her children to attend school, and Semret was already running a successful business and able to cover the basic needs of her family. However, after her husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, Semret needed special assistance to access the medical services that he required. RefugePoint’s medical team helped to set the family up with coverage under Kenya’s National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF), allowing them to access to the same medical insurance benefits as Kenyans, for just $5 per month. Semret says that the card has helped tremendously in helping her manage the medical bills for her husband’s treatment. Semret and her family also participated in counseling sessions to help them through the family’s medical crisis.