My Nonprofit Reviews

The heart of the Children’s Art Village is really the gift of imagination. Many of the children we encountered, taught, and spent quality time with have experienced some real trauma. The process of creating something beautiful with their very own hands, minds, and hearts speaks to something greater than the object or art form itself. It says that creative energy, endowed in us all, if actualized in a child, she/he has the power to re-imagine the world and their role in it. As a volunteer who has traveled with the Children Art Village to Ghana two times now, I have left that orphanage with a deeper and more profound sense of art-in-relationship. Classes are taught, but above all else, connections are fostered and friendships are made. Returning to the same faces made it harder to leave the second time. My fondest memory is when the kids performed that last day to the song “Stand By Me”. More than 50 children gathered around to shout on the top of their lungs the lyrics they had learned all week - “So darling, darling, stand by me! Whooah, stand by me!” All eyes and ears were on them. Maybe they were just performing what I had taught them with my guitar. But maybe, just maybe, through song they were declaring this to one another and demanding this from us. I hope you have the privilege as I have to join the Children’s Art Village in this artful, fun, and creative endeavor!

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