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.
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