Woman intent on helping orphans

Each of the figurines has the hint of a smile, and Lefebvre refers to the foursome as Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, and this is the way they are dressed.

“I had them packed away and when I came across them—I made them over 20 years ago—I knew that there were people who would like them. I thought, ‘I’ll raffle them. This is the way I will help’.”

The people Lefebvre is intent on helping are African children in an orphanage in Bamako, Mali. It was Dany Racine, a woman who refers to Gigi and Joe Lefebvre as ‘Mom’ and ‘Dad’, who told Lefebvre about them.

“Dany called me the first time she visited the orphanage. And she said, ‘Mom, they have nothing. Absolutely nothing.’”

Gigi and Joe Lefebvre are not Dany Racine’s birth parents, but for nearly a decade, practically from the time they met in Cornwallis, they have been like parents to her.

In August 2006, Dany and daughters, Alicia and Suzy left Nova Scotia to join Dany’s husband, Major Luc Racine in Bamako.

The West African city is home to the Bamako Peacekeeping School and the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre. Major Racine teaches African officers about peacekeeping, humanitarian law, and ‘know-how in a multinational context’.

Racine has a four-year posting, so his family is with him.

It was during their first six months in Mali that Dany Racine and her daughters first visited the Malian orphanage. She has been back often since then.

“She takes them food, she hangs out with them. She tells me that she loves to visit, but after the visit, she always cries,” says Lefebvre.

Last October, Dany sent Gigi and Joe money and asked them to buy clothes and toys for the children whose age ranges from one month to 14 years.

“We went and bought clothes and toys and coloring books. A Canadian military plane took them over and they were there in time for Christmas.

“And after she gave them the clothes and toys, Dany called us and she said that she wished we could have been there to see the smile on the children’s faces.”

“Ever since then I’ve wanted to do something myself for those orphans. When she tells me about them, my heart aches. I was adopted, you see. And my parents were wonderful people. It’s so hard to think of young children growing up that way, without parents, without someone to love them.”

This fall Racine is sending Gigi and Joe Lefebvre tickets so they can visit in West Africa for two months.

Gigi Lefebvre will have the opportunity to distribute the clothes and toys she has purchased with the money she has raised from raffling her ceramic figures. And, as her ‘daughter’ Dany has wished, she will have the opportunity to see the smiles on the faces of the children there.