CPA Jason Stratti takes his skills to Africa to finish a brother's aid project
By Jane O'Connor
Jason Stratti CPA loves his treasury management job. But he's put the suit and tie into storage, grown a beard and headed for a village in Tanzania to help build an eco-friendly village to house and educate vulnerable women and children. Jason's motivation is not a bit of backpacking with a social conscience. It is born out of a tragedy that turned his life upside down on 30 June this year.
For Jason, 32, the end of the financial year brought some shattering news. His older brother Darren, 36, an aid worker and building foreman, had been shot dead by robbers who attacked him and his partner Rebecka Delforce for cash they had gathered to buy building materials for their village project near Arusha in Tanzania.
Darren was shot in the chest while defending Rebecka. The lost $6000 seemed minor as she drove Darren across dirt tracks in a utility and was turned away by two hospitals that didn't have the skills to treat him. He died shortly after undergoing surgery at a third hospital.
When Jason's family heard the news back in Sydney, his job at the St George Bank went on hold while the family coped with grief, intense media attention and the practical issues needed to bring a son and brother home from a far-flung African region. Rebecka, a founder and the president of the not-for-profit FoodWaterShelter for which Darren had been working, joined the family in Sydney.
'There just wasn't time to sit around,' Jason says. 'We wanted to bring his body back to Australia and we wanted the story about what Darren had been doing in Tanzania to be told correctly. It was a big, big job. So we got organised and all had our roles as a family, and we fell into doing them.
'That six-week period was like our finest hour as a family. We got our brother back, we celebrated his life, we stayed together and we stayed strong. We also decided that we were going to finish this project, the village of Kesho Leo [it means 'tomorrow today' in Swahili], in Darren's honour.' Underlying this intense time was the frustration that the village project would have been finished in around three months before he died.
The Stratti family is no stranger to the building business, with Jason's other brother Daniel, 34, also in the trade. A cousin is a builder and Darren's two teenage sons had been working with him in Tanzania before he died.
For Jason, it is a case of using his financial and accounting skills to help finish the project in the most efficient way while managing the risks and sourcing whatever help and advice might be needed. 'This is not going to be a holiday,' Jason says.
'There is a lot of planning work that needs to be done to finish the project. But I can think creatively outside the square and be unemotional about the procedures that will be needed. And [for] what I can't figure out, I'll find some outside advisers.'
Daniel will take on the building foreman role Darren previously held. 'But he has a family and a mortgage, so he can only afford to be away for about three months,' Jason says. 'The biggest problem on the project is sourcing the right materials, so if we get held up and Daniel has to come back, then we have a cousin who will step in.'
Jason's parents are also conscious of the risks involved, but he says they are extremely supportive, and his father is an experienced traveller who has been to volatile regions of the world. Jason has calculated the risks.
Jason has no misgivings about what he is getting into, and sees it as a continuing part of how he wants to live his life. At the age of 16 he visited Germany as an exchange student, and seeing the world at that age had a profound effect on him. He felt strongly attracted to what he calls his 'systems approach to understanding the world.'
Jason felt drawn to studying accounting and economics because of an ongoing fascination with how the world of business works. After initially working in the not-for-profit sector, he switched to management accounting and treasury. At the same time he has pursued a passion for music, he played guitar in bands with Darren that performed across Sydney, and he is never far from a beach and a surfboard.
His attitude to a career as a financial professional is simple: 'You can be organic and creative with how you present your work. In treasury, I have to be able to paint a picture of what I'm trying to convey. I feel I am good at doing that, I like doing that and it is a portable skill.'
Jason was in almost daily contact with Darren in Tanzania, and absorbed and shared the satisfaction his brother was getting from the aid project. During his own holiday travels, he saw more than just the next big wave during surfing forays in Indonesia. 'I was really proud of what Darren was doing,' he says. 'He would tell me about the joy he got from teaching the local farmers in Tanzania his building skills. They would see things start on paper and suddenly appear in reality and be amazed at how things happened. They would tell him that he had diamonds in his eyes.
'It was a bit the same when I was surfing in Indonesia. The surf camps provide an income for 10 or more families. I suppose it's about gaining an awareness that we are part of a global community and how we can share our skills within it. The most positive thing for me to do at this point is to finish what Darren started and to see it as another major changing point for me.'
Jason has no doubt that his skills will translate into the Tanzanian project. 'It feels so right, like this is my path,' he says. 'I have got a great portable skill as a CPA. After Tanzania, I can see myself working in banking for part of the year and then spending time setting up something like those surf camps in Indonesia and providing not only an income for people, but teaching them about the functions of business. I have the opportunity to be well paid, but I can also use those resources to benefit other people. I'd rather wake up in the morning and feel that I am contributing.'
Jason was concerned that he might be thought unprofessional, what with his t-shirt and unruly beard. He needn't have been. The new Kesho Leo building crew has formed a 'Beards for Africa' group in order to help raise funds and to keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues.
What of the personal risk he may be facing? Jason is very pragmatic. He says he has unemotionally looked at all the requirements and procedures, and carried out a risk-management plan to cover any eventualities, including delays in the actual building process. The lessons gained from reflection about all that has transpired will, he thinks, be enormously valuable. He has also undergone some intensive emergency medical training because of the lack of available nearby medical attention after Darren was shot. 'Ignorance,' he says, 'just isn't an option for me.'
At the time of writing, Jason had emailed INTHEBLACK to say that after two days of non-stop travel he had reached Arusha. 'It certainly feels like another world away,' he said. He was heading for Kesho Leo early the next morning to get the village project restarted. INTHEBLACK will bring members a monthly update on Jason's progress in Tanzania.
Small money big difference
FoodWaterShelter achieves much with little
FoodWaterShelter (FWC) is the not-for-profit organisation Darren Stratti was working for when he died. It was formed in 2005 by five Australian women who met while working on volunteer projects in Tanzania. They decided that what appeared like the smallest amount of money in the developed world could make a drastic difference to people in a developing country. They set out to build and run eco-friendly villages for vulnerable women and children.
The villages provide the women and orphans with secure accommodation, nourishing food, access to clean water, health, education and social facilities. FWC's projects are carried out by a skeleton team of volunteers using local labour. Once the project is completed, local people are trained to run the facilities.
The village known as Kesho Leo, which means 'tomorrow today' in Swahili, began when FWS bought a 1.2 hectare block of land outside of Arusha, Tanzania, and raised the core $250,000 for the building works. The position of building foreman was crucial to the project and it was Darren Stratti who agreed to take on the role in a volunteer capacity. His partner Rebecka Delforce was one of the founders of FWS.
The Kelso Leo project has been in progress for around 18 months. Darren had been mentoring around 30 subsistence farmers and teaching them building skills. On 30 June, Darren and Rebecka were in their mud hut when they heard someone outside in the dark. They had employed a local security guard because they had put $6000 in a safe to buy building materials.
When they called for a response from their security guard, it quickly became obvious that he was not there. He had been overpowered and bound. Darren told Rebecka to get under the bed. A shot was fired outside, penetrated the hut wall and hit Darren in the chest. Rebecka was hit with a wooden pole and the $6000 was taken.
Rebecka drove Darren to the nearest hospital across dirt tracks, but was told they did not have the equipment to treat him. She had the same response at the second hospital. The third hospital was able to perform surgery, but Darren died a short time later.
Each of the FWS projects are designed to have the minimum impact on their local environment. The FWS project also makes it clear that contributing is not just about money, but also about the skills required to plan such an undertaking.
Professionals such as Australian architect Robert Watson have, pro bono, designed the village to be self-sustaining and to use water tanks, recycling and ventilation mechanisms to the best effect. Recycled waste will be used for a farming project to support the village. Skills such as accounting, legal advice and publicity advice have also been donated free of charge.
