COA student’s show helps African orphans

BAR HARBOR – Tawanda Chabikwa leaped, turned cartwheels and swayed Thursday night around the darkened College of the Atlantic auditorium, dancing as if his life depended on it.

In fact, 10 lives did.

Chabikwa, 20, is from Zimbabwe, a sub-Saharan African nation that has been devastated by AIDS. While at College of the Atlantic, the junior decided he wanted to do something to help some of the roughly 700,000 children in his country who have been orphaned by the epidemic.

He started a nonprofit organization last winter, Ndini Wako, to pay for schooling, counseling, food and career guidance for 10 such children.

“We’re giving AIDS orphans the tools for empowerment, despite their disadvantaged background,” the slight, soft-spoken man said. “We give them the chance to imagine outside their circumstances. We give them a chance to dream.”

The cost of dreaming? Only $250 a year for each child.

“It’s amazingly inexpensive to do this,” Chabikwa said.

The student spent Thursday night rehearsing with a multiethnic group of a dozen COA dancers for a fundraising concert, “Color Africa,” that will be staged tonight at the college’s Gates Center.

The show will be vibrant, compelling and very different, the dancer-choreographer said.

“When people think Africa, they think of a lot of drumming and half-naked bodies,” he said. “I think of this as ‘Afro-fusion,’ putting together the traditional and contemporary.”

The concert is based on a love story set during his country’s liberation struggles of the late 1970s.

“People should prepare themselves for quite an intense emotional and visual performance,” he said.

A performance that Chabikwa put on last March netted $5,000 for the cause. He said he hopes to raise at least $2,500 at this evening’s show.

It’s money that he can’t afford not to spend, the young activist said.

“All we’re trying to do is to give these kids a chance,” he said. “However far they want to go, we’re willing to take them that far. Because it is an unfair start.”

Chabikwa was able to go home last summer and meet the orphans for the first time. What he expected to be a small gathering with the kids, their teachers and the staff of his organization turned into a huge, poignant social event. Half the village came, the children recited their own poetry, and he played his guitar.

“The next thing you know, everybody’s dancing,” he said. “It really was much nicer to meet them. Made me realize how important it was. When people, both young and old, start breaking down in front of you, it quite changes things.”

While efforts are being made in Zimbabwe to counteract the AIDS epidemic, most of those seem to center on prevention education, Chabikwa said.

“It’s never enough,” he said, “and somehow, it’s not working.”

He has plans to raise enough money to support an additional five students and to attract funding from Zimbabwean organizations, which will help keep his nonprofit sustainable.

“We’re pretty darn hopeful,” he said. “People in the country understand the AIDS situation. They know that this is an investment in the future.”

“Color Africa” will be held at 7 tonight at Gates Center. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for children. Chabikwa’s art show which features Zimbabwean themes, “Downset,” runs through Nov. 30 with an opening reception 4-6 p.m. today at COA’s Blum Gallery.