Greetings from Italy!

The  AACDP Tuscan Tour 2024 is in full swing. We went to the ultimate renaissance Uffizi Gallery, had tea overlooking Florence at my gracious friend’s villa, and on the way to Pienza, stopped in Siena to see the soaring gothic beauty of the Siena Duomo.

Siena Cathedral

All AACDP tours serve a double purpose. Participants have an extraordinary chance to explore Tuscany off the beaten path, and all profits go to our projects in Zambia. The money from this tour will help students and ensure the next drought emergency food deliveries for the Zambezi Farm community. Buying food grows more expensive each month, and we must also upgrade our delivery vehicle to something that can better handle the heavy loads on the rough and often unpaved surfaces.

Our tour itinerary is posted here. Maybe you’d like to join us next year!

African Craft Sale Thursday

Thursday August 29

10 AM - 2 PM

20 Road to Great Neck, West Tisbury

Follow the signs from New Lane

Also by appointment 508 560 2620

Beautiful hand selected items from Victoria Falls Craft Market:

fabric, baskets, silver jewelry, Zambezi Dolls, hand carved wooden animals

All profits from these sales go to support the Mama Bakhita Home for children with disabilities, as well as our educational scholarship programs and the Zambezi Farm.

If you would like to see these unusual and handmade crafts from Zambia, Niger, and Zanzibar, come tomorrow, or give a call and we'll make an appointment at your convenience.

20 Road to Great Neck, West Tisbury - off New Lane

Follow the signs from New Lane down to road to great neck and then into our driveway.

PHOTO PRESENTATIONS SUMMER 2024

ZAMBIA ON MY MIND

West Tisbury Library • Saturday, July 13, 3:30pm

Oak Bluffs Library  •  Thursday, July 25, 5:30pm

Martha's Vineyard Museum  •  Friday, September 13, 4:00pm

International Women's Day 2024, Livingstone, Zambia

I began this journey in 1999, passing through Victoria Falls, Zambia on my way to the Great Zimbabwe Ruins. When I purchased a wooden carving at the craft market I had no idea this would reroute my life and lead eventually to the creation of the African Artists Community Development Project. That's how the story starts.

25 years later, I made my annual trip to Zambia and was surprised to find a radical positive shift in the government. Hakainde Hichilema has been in power more than two years after running for office six times on an anti-corruption agenda. (He was jailed the fifth time and sentenced to death by the sitting president. True story.) But, surprise, surprise, HH, as he is commonly referred to, has proven to be truly anti-corruption and pro-people. It is the first time anyone has seen a Zambian president making serious improvements in the lives of the poor. 

In my presentation, you'll hear about the Zambezi women's group who have survived extreme poverty, low social status and lack of medical care to become a force of their own, acquiring skills to create income and run their own communal farm. 

I'll show you how making art has become a kind of physical therapy as well as a source of pleasure and expression for the children with disabilities at the Mama Bakhita School, because color and form are accessible to all of them.

This is a story of how hope and determination survive, even now, in the face of a devastating drought.

The AACDP has raised money for 20 years to create income opportunities such as the Zambezi Doll Company, and, more recently, Zambezi Farm.