Debra Akello watched in horror as television news reports flashed images of her Kenyan countrymen engaged in bloody ethnic battles.
"Do you see what's happening in my country?" a distraught Akello asked her close friend and mentor Joy Dorsey Burton. "People are dying. People are being displaced from their homes. . . . And many don't have access to medical care."
The violence broke out after December's controversial presidential election in the East African nation, and Burton was equally disturbed by the carnage. Burton offered her longtime pal some advice:
"Let's not feel bad about it. Let's do something about it."
That night, Akello couldn't sleep.
"It was all I could think of," said Akello, 34, a registered nurse and widowed mother of a teenage daughter.
Suddenly in her insomnia, an idea popped into her head. She would launch a nonprofit group aimed at providing humanitarian assistance and medical services to needy Kenyans.
"We have so much here in the United States," said Akello, who came to America 14 years ago and lives in Saugus. "We can help show [Kenyans] how to improve their lives. And I believe a lot of lives can be saved."
Burton, 51, a financial planner with almost two decades of corporate management experience, was instantly on board. But some friends and relatives thought the women were dreaming.
"You guys are crazy," was the initial reaction of Akello's older brother, Steve Odanga, she recalled.
Burton remembers the caution from her daughter Shoshanna: "Mom, you've got enough on your plate. Why do you need something else?"
Akello and Burton would not be deterred. They decided to call their group Helping Hands International Foundation.
The group would start with bringing medical relief to Kenyans, Burton said, with the aim of launching projects to help tackle world hunger and homelessness.
They started from scratch, searching the Internet for companies that offer assistance with creating nonprofit corporations. They found a package that cost about $300.
Applying for tax-exempt status required the women to fill out a questionnaire with dozens of queries, including how many people they hoped to help and the mortality rate in Kenya. They also crafted a 26-page proposal to be sent to the IRS.
"We went back and forth," Akello recalled.
"Debra would call me sometimes at 6 a.m.," Burton said.
"I would say, 'I've got a great idea,' " Akello chimed in.
