A couple years ago the CV Network did a piece on the CACD in Pawtucket. As it turns out Abdul Adil was involved in the protest that took place. I asked him to speak on that a little bit.
CACD, which stands for Cape Verdean American Community Development, was created in 1993 to help the Cape Verdean Community. But as Abdul tells it, “I got a phone call that the executive director” at the time two years ago, “was getting a lot of money from the City and State” (That’s Pawtucket and Rhode Island), “but that he’s not doing what it was meant for. While he was at CACD, money was disappearing and was used for personal reasons while the board was not functioning. So I did an investigation and found that yes this was actually true… and so I made it public and went outside of the Cape Verdean Community” to tell people about what was going on. Local politicians were involved as well. “Basically after that, and I did a little protest about two years ago… and they actually ousted the director. Now they have a transition team….. CACD is a building that could be used to help the community.”
I asked Abdul how he managed to do his investigation. Partly because I wanted to know for my self.
“I had someone that looked into a Company’s taxes, look into their bills. There is a Public Record.”
Having talked to Abdul about his amazing CV World Enterprise (which I covered in the last article about him), I wondered how he would run programs if he had all that grant money and a building in Pawtucket.
In fact, I was curious where CV World Enterprise was located. He runs many programs for youth including soccer tournaments, cookouts, and classes where the youth take the leadership roles and learn skills like videography. The kids run the show and record it themselves and make their own documentaries.
Abdul’s programs actually make money. They create rather than spend resources…and then those resources go to things like trips to Six Flags and Celtics games. So what could he do if he had the resources that the CACD had?
“If I had that building, I would be running the City (Pawtucket). CV World Enterprise is run out of my basement.” Wow, imagine what could be done if the right people have the right resources.
I went on to talk more about Abdul’s personal journey from the Cabo Verde islands to the United states to become the first Cabo Verdean rapper. We will talk about that in our next article.
(CACD had a public meeting on February 26 to discuss changes to revitalize the organization. Details about this meeting to follow. )
