About Us
A Letter from the Director
The Collaborative for International Children’s Art and Non-profits (CICAN) is a non-profit, educational collaborative that displays international children’s art and uses various multisensory cultural objects and activities as a conduit for cultural awareness among local school children. CICAN also hosts local cultural representatives who share an authentic experience of their culture.
The vision of CICAN is fourfold: We educate local youth about other cultures through international children’s art, collaborate with international non-profits working with children for the betterment of their communities, invest into the global community by exchanging international children’s art for books, clothes or school supplies, and encourage self-expression by children in an artistic medium.
CICAN has invested and will continue to invest in the many diverse and innovative grassroots projects around the world. For instance, in Afghanistan the proceeds were given to Green Village Schools, a non-profit which builds schools for both boys and girls in a local village. In Cameroon, the proceeds were given to Fondation Petit Dan and Sarah, an orphanage in the capitol, Yaounde, where a local artist teaches painting to the orphans. In Ghana, the proceeds bought books for the Kathy Knowles Library in Accra (the library is in an old shipping container). In East Jerusalem, the proceeds were given to Rose of Jerusalem, a non-profit which assists disadvantaged Palestinian children. And in Mozambique, the proceeds were given to the Thios School which educates orphaned children in the town of Chimoio.
CICAN was inspired by two people: my young son whose art compositions irreverently emerged from his unrehearsed hands and a young, newly wed Afghani woman I was tutoring in English. In her village of Shin Kalay, she had never attended school, never held a writing utensil nor used written word to express her thoughts. She revealed to me that young hands are never idle in her village. A girl as young as 4 years old spends her free time preparing trinkets for her eventual wedding. It is the proceeds of her art that will help construct the walls of the school she will attend.
It is possible to ease some of life’s inequities and provide the opportunity for self-expression through paint, pastel and brush to those whose lives are often a matter of utility. CICAN is a collaborative inspired to bridge the distance between countries, cultures and lives…between children through awareness.
Lisa Whitridge
Executive Director