Vital Signs of Love in Kansas City

My aunt Bette McGill and cousin Lisa Chinn hosted an Animal Art Party at Bette's sign and custom T-Shirt shop in Kansas City (Vital Signs) on April fool's day. We had so much fun making animals and catching up! Not only did Bette have great snacks and delicious mint lemonade, she provided the most inspiring space for getting creative and made a most awesome giraffe! My mom was there too, and my aunt Kim and cousin Jessie. Lee, a friend of Lisa's was also busy crafting, churning out two animals before her and her daughter had to scoot. Tatum, Lisa's little one was also helping us out, mostly by singing and humming her own little tunes for us to craft to! Plus one of my oldest highschool friends, Kris Coyazo came by- tho she managed to sneak out before I could snap a pic of her with her animal! Love you guys- thanks for believing in me and supporting the project!

 

 

Art Safari Tickets- Buy Online

Reserve Your Spot on the Art Safari, Saturday April 21! Buy your tickets here!

Love Made Tangible - March Update Newsletter

Animals for Africa collects a growing menagerie and makes travel plans for artisan training and animal delivery this summer!

VIEW IN YOUR BROWSER

Citizens Put Their Necks Out for Orphans in Africa       Welcome to "Love Made Tangible!" the official newsletter of Animals for Africa!   Animals for Africa is a nonprofit arts program that benefits and empowers Africa's most vulnerable women and children through the hand-crafting and exchange of simple, folk-art inspired stuffed animals.  Since it's inception in May, 2011, when I first traveled to Malawi, Africa with VoiceFlame Writers, I have continued to work with friends and allies all over the world to empower a group of impoverished village women in Tukombo Village to form their own crafting cooperative (or Animal COOP!) as dozens of "concerned citizens"  step forward to contribute their creative energy and "money as love" to create personalized animals for orphans and vulnerable children in Malawi. So far, over 80 wild and wonderfully creative animals have been wrangled up for delivery to Malawi this summer - with nearly 30 of those thanks to our creative collaborator and super- ambassador, Sue Hickman and her friends, truly the  "hostess with the mostest!"   We're having so much fun!  And new alliances are forming to help bring "Love Made Tangible"  to Ghana, Uganda and even Cambodia! (Did someone say Animals for Asia?)  A brief glimpse of these happenings are touched on below, along with details on our special upcoming event- an  Art Safari at Safari West on Saturday, April 21st!  To get more scoop on these stories and more, follow our blog  and be sure to check out our updated website for more information about who we are, what we do and how you can help make or support Animals for Africa! And finally, if you want to track all our most current shennanigans, "like us" on facebook!  I hope you enjoy reading about all our recent and upcoming adventures!  WIth Love and Hippo Hugs! Robbyn Alexander, Founding Director Animals for Africa Girls Get Wild at CERI Animal Art Party! The Center for the Empowerment of Refugees and Immigrants (CERI) in Oakland, CA hosted Animals for Africa at their own Animal Art Party in January.  I was delighted to spend two Friday evenings chatting and crafting with this group of compassionate and wildly creative young women, while they made their own ecclectic versions of the animals for orphans in Africa, and planted seeds to bring "Love Made Tangible" to orphans in Cambodia. Check out the full story and pics here! Art Safari! Get Your Zebra On! Sat, April 21 A Wild & Crafty Creative Retreat 11am-4:30pm at Safari West Santa Rosa, CA Feeling wild and crafty? Join Animals for Africa on an Art Safari!   Come "get your zebra on" as you connect and create on a day-long retreat with new friends, great food & crafting-for-a-cause! Your contribution of $150 includes safari, lunch and crafting supplies. Space is limited to 8 adventurers!  ($10 Early Bird Discount if you register by March 20!) Read details and register here! Upcoming Travels and New Alliances Our menagerie of hand-crafted animals keeps growing, and thanks to our ambassadors and friends, we already have nearly 80 animals in the stable, almost half way to our goal of 200 by July!  That's a lot of  "love made tangible" for Malawi! Travel plans are underway for our return trip to Africa this summer for delivery to the children in Tukumbo Village and Blantyre.  New alliances are also brewing that could have us spending a few weeks in both Ghana and Uganda to seed artisan crafting cooperatives for women and youth there as well! Read more here!

follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend  Make a "Money as Love" donation! Animals for Africa is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization.  Contributions for the purposes of Animals for Africa must be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

Art Safari-Get Your Zebra On!

Saturday, April 21, 2012   

A Wild & Crafty Creative Retreat (11am-4:30pm)

Animals for Africa at Safari West in Santa Rosa, CA

www.animalsforafrica.org info@animalsforafrica.org • 510.220.8894

Feeling wild and crafty?  Join Animals for Africa on an Art Safari!    Come connect and create on a day-long creative retreat with new friends, great food & crafting-for-a-cause!  

The morning begins with an inspiring journey through the “Sonoma Serengeti,” California’s own authentic African Wildlife preserve, with over 100 species of mammals and birds!  We’ll share a delicious BBQ banquet of grilled chicken or pulled pork and seasonal veggies then hang out and relax all afternoon, creating our own Animals for Africa!

Animals for Africa are simple, folk-art inspired stuffed animals, hand-stitched by concerned citizens of the world for orphaned and vulnerable children victimized by poverty, globalization and HIV/AIDS in Africa. 

Your contribution of $150 includes safari, lunch and crafting supplies, and helps support Animals for Africa in its mission to benefit & empower Africa’s most vulnerable women and children through creativity and love. You’ll also receive your own Animal for Africa to keep, hand-made in Malawi by an apprenticing artisan.  Reserve your spot today!

Space is limited to 8 adventurers!  

($10 Early Bird Discount if you register by March 20!)

REGISTER HERE:  info@animalsforafrica.org

MAIL CHECKS TO:

Animals for Africa

1119 East 15th Street

Oakland, CA 94606

Upcoming Travels & New Alliances

Upcoming Travels
and New Alliances

Travel plans are underways for our return trip to Africa this summer to deliver 200 Animals for Africa to the children at the community based child care centers in Tukumbo Village and the Manja Care Orphanage in Blantyre, Malawi.  

Our menagerie of hand-crafted animals keeps growing, and thanks to our ambassadors and friends, we already have nearly 80 animals in the stable, almost half way to our goal!  That's a lot of  "love made tangible" !  I can barely wait to see the smiles it will bring, each time I put a cuddly, one-of-kind animal creation into the hands of the child it was made for!  While we're in Malawi, we'll be checking in with the women of Tukombo Village to see how things are shaping up with their animal crafting cooperative  (or Animal C.O.O.P), and to offer additional training and supplies.  
We've also been invited by the director of In Movement: Art for Social Change  to Uganda and the founder of Cross Cultural Collaborative to Ghana, with a lot of potential brewing to create Animals for Africa for the children there and seed Animal COOPs  in those communities!  We'll keep you posted on how these new alliances and travel plans shape up!  In the meantime,  let us know if you have even an inkling of joining us in Malawi, Ghana or Uganda!

Girls Get Wild at CERI Animal Art Party

The Center for the Empowerment of Refugees and Immigrants (CERI) in Oakland, CA hosted Animals for Africa at their own Animal Art Party in January.  I was delighted to spend two Friday evenings chatting and crafting with this group of compassionate and wildly creative young women, while they made their own ecclectic versions of the animals for orphans in Africa.  They also fed me delicious, home cooked cambodian food (a group cooking effort) and told me more than a few good ghost stories!  The children of traumatized immigrants from a war torn Cambodia themselves, these girls were quick to identify with the blight of the African child they were crafting for, and wondered with their own big hearts, if we might also make animals for the children at the CERI sponsored orphanage in Cambodia.  A seed was certainly planted!   We'll keep you posted on how this new alliance grows, but a future  "Love Made Tangible" campaign in Asia is an inspiring possibility!  Much thanks  to CERI executive director Mona Afary and program coordinator Jen Jastrab for the invitation and hospitality!  

    

And a big thanks to ALL our ambassadors and makers!  Check out more Animal Art Party stories and  these fun party picks!   and  sign up now to host your own Animal Art Party!    If you're a non-profit organization, business, school or club, you can also  invite us to present a workshop for your group event! 

February Update

I am so excited with all the creatively that continues to flourish long after our journey to Malawi in May 2011.  I wanted to share more of what is unfolding with Animals for Africa!  Sue Hickman and I had a very fruitful meeting with Safari West on Monday, with the possibility to host ongoing Animal Art Parties for their overnight guests there as one potential out come. They may also be open to displaying the animals and promotional materials for the project in their gift shop and dining area- just awaiting approval by their board!  Also, plans are definitely in the works for an Animals for Africa Art Safari day retreat and a weekend Art Safari Overnight Retreat soon, so stay tuned! 

Meanwhile, lots of organizing and networking is underway, which has been very valuable in helping me to refine the vision of Animals for Africa and consider where it may go/grow,  while still tending to it's newly budding sprouts in Malawi.  As I may have already told you, it was very exciting to receive 38 animals from the women of Tukombo through Masanko, and to send payment  for the "product"  directly back to the village along with some additional supplies.  The women are in essence, in business! 

Other exciting news, as of today, I have officially sent out all the children's names we gathered in Tukombo village and Mjoho BDCC- 83 names in all. I have not received back 83 animals yet, of course, but I trust they will all "migrate" back to me  (wink to Sue Hickman, for that pun) before I return to Malawi this summer.  Thanks to Mary and Sue, I also have 61 names of children from the Genesis Foundation orphanage, Manja Othandiza in Blantyre, and have sent out kits with 7 of those names already! So it won't be long before there's an animal for every child on the lists gathered last Spring!  I am sure there will be more children than I have names for by the time I return to Malawi, so I will also be asking Ambassadors to host "orphan animal" parties- creating animals without names who will be "adopted" by children who are new (or were missed) in the initial name gathering process. I am sure I will be very busy in the evenings  in Africa,  adding these children's names to their animals (hint hint those who are thinking of traveling this summer!)

This is where the program stands today, with lots of tendrils reaching into potentially fertile ground for collaborations (if you "like" my animals for Africa facebook page, you can see more- and a newsletter is due out soon!)

Most immediately, I realize I will need support upon returning to Malawi specifically for the AFA project in Tukombo, and I hope to  work with the orphanage in Blantyre to seed a similar crafting cooperative.   I  am venturing into new territory!

So, for now, that is the latest! Exciting potential brewing all over!

With hippo hugs,

Robbyn