In 1998, I founded a non-profit organization called the Philadelphia Foundation for World Music. The Foundation held many events and provided educational materials and medical support to Jamaica between 1998 through the early 2000s. The Foundation screened two internationally acclaimed movies, “Life and Debt” and “Africa Unite” and awarded Toots and The Maytals with the City of Philadelphia Proclamation. Our slogan is One Planet. One People. All Music. All Art.

Tropic Relief, a division of the PFWMA was a unique and very successful non- profit campaign that combined and honored the discovery and exchange of arts and culture, with the compassion of a spirited relief effort. Tropic Relief is based on our “Trinity of Concern” model, promoting the awareness and importance of health, education, and environmental sustainability.

Tropic Relief visited the Broughton Primary School in Westmorland, Jamaica, where we furnished school supplies and held an art class with the students taught by Philadelphia school teacher, Maria Pandolfi. The artwork from that workshop was later exhibited at the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The Kata Iron Thorn Film will promote a hurricane relief effort in the story, making it not just a film about the Caribbean but cause in support of the Caribbean!