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Dalene Joubert, leader in GRN South Africa, tells us Tumi's story - just some of the most important steps on the journey this far
I got my first demo from Guy Piersall in 2010 when he and Jan visited.
That's when my mind started ticking ... I remember saying to Guy. This fellow has character. And he's trying to tell me something. We need to bring his character and persona out and give him a unique purpose.
I ordered 2 or 3 more and had a think tank session with text creator, Claude Vosloo around 2012. Research started and in 2013 we had a matrix ready so he could start writing the script.
The script was completed early 2015. Now this furry fellow had a name: Tumi.
I gathered more yellow-nose Tumi's in early 2015.
We recorded the English later that year in 2015: recordist was Michael Ropp.
Professional voice artist Marié du Toit did the voice work. The recording took 4 days.
The editing took a few months. Spacing and the right gaps to create expectation and allow for response were important. We listened again and again.
Marié did such a good job that we decided to translate to Afrikaans in 2016. It took one year.
We recorded later in 2016 at the Johan van Lill radio studio in Durbanville, Cape Town with Lizelle de Bruin as the producer and Neil Roux as the sound engineer.
We started slow with the idea to maximise impact and not to dish Tumi out as a cheap toy, but to market it as a professional therapeutic tool, because that was what it was now.
I visted children's hospices, safe houses and children's homes, and the cancer ward at the biggest government hospital in South Africa.
The feedback started coming.
Our first user of Tumi I will never forget. He was a 5 year old cancer patient, terminally ill. He clearly experienced a high level of discomfort and far away alone in the hospice away from his family. We put Tumi on his tummy and he refused when they went to take Tumi away. Tumi stayed on his tummy until he passed on months later.
His name was Bevan. I can never forget him because he changed my life forever. He showed me what Tumi is capable of, and from there no one could stop me.
We started to work with a few women in the South African police force, who manned the trauma rooms in a few Western Cape high-violence suburbs.
More feedback came.
I was asked by a coworker to visit a special burn unit in a children's hospital on Christmas morning and to bring a Tumi for a highly traumatised kid. I got permission to visit her in person. She had 83% burn wounds, couldn't regulate her own body temperature, and lay in an incubator. She was 7 years old.
I left Tumi with her with almost no expectation - it was a Christmas present.
A week later the doctor in charge of the ward sent me a message. "Can you bring me 10 more of those tigers. The impact on the burn victim is significant."
A few months later when this girl was released, the first thing this now 8 year old said to her mother: Take me to church and Tumi is going with me.
Then God connected me via a prayer partner to Melody.
This was good timing, because me and Marina (who was actually meant to be the volunteer bookkeeper at the ministry) didn't have the capacity to answer the need and requests for Tumi.
You can read more about Melody here. She joined the ministry at just the right time.
And during Covid we decided to start a remote therapy line to help families and therapists who suffer from therapist fatigue.
Melody helped Tumi to spread his wings, and now he's all over the world, also because of very special, stratgeic partners and coworkers whom God has been adding to the Tumi team. Tumi has passed us by. It is clear that he belongs to God. And it is clear that the children of this broken world need Tumi; I hear it every day. And we are only thankful. It is pure grace. What can I say more? We're making new friends every day!
One friend is now translating Tumi into German. A proofreader in Germany will do the proofreading.
We have a separate project going for Tumis to the Ukraine in partnership with GRN Europe and GRN USA, the latter reaching out to refugees in the States, and GRN Australia.
The Catalan translation was done after Judy Young from GRN USA first translated it into Spanish. The Spain team is now looking for a studio and explore the best way to record the content.
Tumi is being translated now into Arabic and Hebrew. Please pray with us for these projects.
And we start to translate Tumi into IsiZulu and IsiXhosa this year. The translator is coworker Patricia Zoya.
Two trauma workers in the Far East want to start translating.
Pray for prayer partners Laetitia Roux and her son Léan, who wants to raise awareness for Tumi.
Pray for our coworking manufacturer MegaVoice, who supplies the soft toy and voice boxes, who work tireslessly to help ensure that Tumi's hardware quality stays tops, that his fur and his reputation stays in shiny condition.
Thanks to you all out there who has been supporting the work of Tumi.
Investing in our children is the best investment one can make.
Because like this little fellow says - "I am the future".
Please continue to pray with us as we seek to create quality content that changes lives.