Portland Area Global AIDS Coalition
Featured organization of the month:

Making Human Connections through Art

Martha Kamunda painting

General Information:
Zimbabwe Artists Project (“ZAP”) celebrates the artistry and accomplishments of women from rural Weya in eastern Zimbabwe. Through education, sale of their art in the United States, and special projects, ZAP helps these women become economically self-sufficient. Sales of their art helps women afford food, clothing, school fees, medicine, transport, seeds and fertilizer.

In the United States, we help our communities to see common humanity across boundaries of culture and privilege.  We encourage our friends and customers to recognize ways in which we can use our own privilege to enhance the dignity and self-respect of others, including the artists of Weya.

Zimbabwe Artists Project’s Goals:
ZAP has two goals.  First, we help the artists use their creativity to support themselves and their families.  We assist the artists in getting art supplies, and we purchase art directly from them, paying more than twice as much as any other buyer.  We provide health care for all artists, and we do special projects with artists to meet special needs.

Our second goal is to help our friends and customers in the United States to see common humanity across boundaries of race and culture and privilege.  We encourage them to recognize how we can use our own privilege to enhance the dignity and self-respect of others, including the artists of Weya.

Albertina Nyamagoronga with her appliqué “Loice’s Children”

Zimbabwe Artists Project – Special Projects:
Our engagement with the artists has led us further into their communities.  With donations from friends of ZAP and through the sale of our Guinea Hen Lady book and Mazhanje Pickers jigsaw puzzles, we provide school fees and uniforms for 80 community children who have lost their parents to AIDS, and we provide textbooks for their schools.  We have done a clean water project in Weya, assisting the communities to rebuild clean water wells and drill new ones.  In addition to providing schooling for AIDS orphans, ZAP provides testing, counseling, and medicine for all artists who have tested HIV positive.

Zimbabwe Artists Project has a permanent gallery space in the Olympic Mills Commerce Center in inner southeast Portland.  Visit us during normal office hours (call ahead to make sure we are around).

Contact Information for Zimbabwe Artists Project:
Zimbabwe Artists Project
107 SE Washington Street, Suite 162
Portland, OR 97214
www.zimbabweartistsproject.org
phone: (503)232-7057

Dick Adams, executive director
director@zimbabweartistsproject.org

Heather MacKenzie, volunteer & outreach coordinator
coordinator@zimbabweartistsproject.org

Please check for future events on our website:
www.zimbabweartistsproject.org/zimbabwe-art-exhibits-events

Report from Kenya

Dear Portland Area Global AIDS Community:

Many of us have been reading about what is happening in Kenya and wondering how we can help, so I am sharing a letter from Judi Smith of Watoto wa Dunia. I will post updates as I receive them, and am happy to distribute news from other Kenya based groups.

Here is a follow up to the report from Judi Smith from John Motter. Many of us know John Motter and Geri Johnson and are very relieved to hear that they are safely back in Oregon, although we feel deeply for what is happening to the people of Kenya.

Thank you for caring.
Ann Pickar
Co-chair, Portland Area Global AIDS Coalition