“From Johannesburg”, she says, we took puddle- jumpers to Lusaka”. They arrived in the Zambian capital 22 hours after leaving New York. Their luggage was taking its time catching up.

“We went to Chaminuka, the home of Andrew and Danai Sardanis”, Muchnikoff explains. “They operate their property as a combination conference center, bed and breakfast and game preserve”.

Andrew Sardanis had arrived in Africa at a young age with $19 in his pocket and, being an astute businessman, turned opportunity into substantial wealth. With part of his money, he purchased 10,000 acres of land and created Chaminuka about 20 miles north of the capital. Visitors to Zambia, one of the few successful democracies in southern Africa, are often guests at Chaminuka. Mother and daughter hunkered down to wait for their luggage, which took another three days to arrive.

Meanwhile, they were supplied with two guides and embarked on a tour of Lusaka. Now understand, some orphans in Zambia are street people, begging from car window to car window. The government tries as best it can to provide the basics for these children, but the devastation caused by AIDS is overwhelming. As many as half of Zambia’s adults have tested positive or died from the viral disease. There are signs posted on the streets discouraging people from giving money to these children, directing them instead to agencies that can help.

One of the agencies Danai Sardanis suggested they visit was the Kasisi Orphanage. At first, perhaps out of curiosity, these two American women ventured into the orphanage. That’s when the challenge arose, exposing them to a life changing experience.

The Kasisi Orphanage is operated by the Kasisi Sisters of the Archdiocese of Lusaka and, like many similar African organizations, it is strapped by the needs of so many parentless children. At the time of Muchnikoff’s visit, there were 260 children in residence from only a few weeks old (having been orphaned by the death of mother in childbirth) to young adults in their early 20s, serving as “mommies” to the younger children.

Danai Sardanis has long been a mentor of local artists and, when she saw the condition of the children and the emotional struggles they were enduring, she knew artistic expression was one way to penetrate the walls the children erect to protect themselves from fear and hopelessness. She suggested to Sister Mariola, who is the director of the orphanage, that they start an art therapy program. She brought local artists in to work with the children and obtained whatever art supplies she could. The results were more than Sardanis or the orphanage could have hoped for.

The children are encouraged to paint whatever subjects appeal to them. Sister Mariola told Muchnikoff she watches the children’s art change from early pictures that are sad and cruel and violent to pictures that reflect softness and gentleness. Muchnikoff explains further, “Painting is a key to the children’s imagination. It gives them a sense of control over what they think they can do. It builds self-assurance and pride, helping them deal with their loss, helping them find a path to a normal life.”

Art came to Muchnikoff relatively late in life. She had taken drawing and painting classes to add some color to her life, made drab by work in retail stores while her husband completed his doctorate in pharmacology.

“I had a good feel for painting,” she says. “I felt comfortable.”

 As she developed her skill and talent, she faced a challenge that moved her from painting to teaching. Her mother was diagnosed with cancer and, to take her mother’s mind off her disease, Muchnikoff began to teach her what she had learned.

“My mother had an eye for color and composition,” Muchnikoff says, “and the artist we never knew emerged”. The older woman became quite accomplished in the year before her death, selling several of her paintings in juried shows.

“I discovered if I could teach my hard headed mother how to paint, I could teach anyone,” she says. Soon she was teaching children to draw and paint, a vocation she has pursued in the cities where she has lived - Indianapolis, Atlanta and Las Cruces.

In class, a child or two may resist, saying they can’t do what Muchnikoff is asking of them, but she gently coaxes and encourages. Within a short time - a matter of minutes in most cases - the child’s imagination kicks in. They forget their complaint and fear, and they almost literally dive into the project, producing remarkably creative results.

This is what Muchnikoff saw in the children at the Kasisi Orphanage - the same resistance, only brought about by traumatic life experiences. The same loss of fear as youthful imaginations were stimulated. The same results, expressions of the life they see around them reproduced with creative exuberance.

Throughout the rest of her tour of Zambia, all Muchnikoff could think about was how she could help, what she could do. On return to Las Cruces, she began a crusade, tapping every artist connection she had to raise money. She managed to collect enough to purchase and ship two large boxes of art supplies to the orphanage.

But her zeal in helping these children continues and her vision has expanded.  Now she wants to return to Lusaka, with even more supplies, and work directly with the children, teaching them as she has taught others.

Muchnikoff has used many of the photographs she made on her trip in creating a body of “African” art. She carves images of African wildlife, villages, people in native garb in artist’s linoleum blocks and makes prints. Then she hand-paints each print, adding texture and depth. Each print becomes unique because the paints lay differently on various types of paper and because her own imagination adds vibrant variations to each picture.

“My goal is to find a gallery to show and sell my art,” Muchnikoff says. “I would use the money I earn to return to the Kasisi Orphanage with a bundle of art supplies, and for a few months to teach these children.”

Fulfilling her desire to help the children of Kasisi would be the culmination of a goal founded so many years ago - to share her passion and love of painting with people more in need of self-expression than anyone she’s ever known.