AACDP is a certified non-profit organization that helps support non-government organizations in Zambia which provide aid to disabled and orphaned children.

We raise funds by selling crafts and artwork imported from Zambian artists’ cooperatives in Livingstone and Lusaka and return all profits to local facilities for disabled and orphaned children. Currently we are raising money for the newly created Upeme Orphanage in Kamaila, as well as the Mama Bakhita Cheshire Center in Livingstone. The only facility of its kind in Southern Zambia, the MBCC opened in 1996 with six children. As of 2007, it serves seventy-five children of all ages and disabilities, providing medical and psychological counseling, financial support, vocational training, and physical therapy. The Center relies on donations to augment the funding efforts of the Franciscan Sisters who run it.

After witnessing firsthand the effects of HIV/AIDS in Zambia, artist and early childhood educator Marsha Winsryg created the AACDP in 2004, achieving 501c3 status in 2005. Through monthly correspondence and biannual site visits, she maintains close personal connections with the Upeme Orphanage and the Mama Bakhita Cheshire Center, and personally ensures that all profits from craft sales go directly to them.

In a small yet effective way, the AACDP effort helps counter the effects of poverty, AIDS and disabilities by utilizing the artists’ talents to strengthen their community.

YOU CAN HELP

  • Purchase fine handicrafts for yourself or as gifts for friends.
  • Sell handicrafts through your organization, church or other groups.
  • Contribute directly to the AACPD.


To make a donation please fill out this form and mail it with your check or money order to:

AACDP
P.M.B. 3051 P.O. 3000
West Tisbury, MA 02575


If you have questions about the African Artists' Community Development Project, or are interested in helping sell its handicrafts, please call Marsha Winsryg:
(508)693-4059 or fill out the contact form below:

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The Mama Bakhita Cheshire Center is led by the Franciscan Sister Agnes.Sister Agnes Extending her work into the Extending her work into the community, she has created support groups for single parents and a lunch program for high school students as an incentive to attend school. To supplement the income for the Center, she raises and sells chickens. Tolerant, patient and strong, Sister Agnes is much beloved.

Felicitious

Felicitous arrived at the MBCC in 1996, a seven year old wrapped in a blanket, unresponsive and unable to care for herself in any way. Thanks to the loving care and programs the Center provided, she is now a radiant young woman, embodying MBCC's central belief that these children are an important part of their community.

African Artist

Foster Wachata comes from a long line of wood carvers from Mukuni Village, the largest traditional village in Zambia. He has been sending crafts to the AACDP for five years and from those sales he was able to build a small house for his family last year.