Cecily's Fund - Educating Zambian children orphaned by AIDS

This project needs

Grants and donations to enable us to buy shoes, books, pens and provide help with school fees and to train peer health educators and teachers. Pro bono support with skills such as fundraising, financial management, monitoring and evaluation. Can you help ? Contact Unit C6 New Yatt Business Centre New Yatt Witney Oxfordshire U.K. OX29 6TJ United Kingdom Phone and Fax: +44 (0)1993 869005 E-mail:admin@cecily's fund.org           Web: www.cecilysfund.org

Cecily's Fund is a UK registered charity that makes it possible for Zambian orphans and other impoverished children to go to school

Zambia is one of the countries that has been hardest hit by HIV. The epidemic has been the cause of over half the country's 1.2 million orphans losing one or both parents. They, and children whose parents are chronically sick, cannot afford to go to school. Without school, they grow up marginalised, uneducated and at greater risk of poverty and HIV themselves.

We enable nearly 10,000 of these children to go to school and college by giving them shoes, uniforms, books, pens and help with fees. We also help some of them, once they have graduated from school, to help other children keep themselves and others safe and healthy by training them to become Peer Health Educators and Teachers.

We work closely with our Zambian partner organisations, who have a good understanding of the battle for survival against poverty and HIV and of local networks and systems. They work with schools to identify the poorest children and enrol them. Each school has a nominated teacher who is reponsible for the wellbeing of the children we support there; they monitor and report to us on their progress and help them to find ways of overcoming obstacles to fulfilling their potential in school. We also regularly visit the childrens' schools and homes ourselves to make sure the money is being used as effectively as possible.

These children have been bereaved, sometimes repeatedly, and had their lives disrupted by having to move to different areas to be cared for by relatives. But at school they get emotional support from teachers and friends, become more confident and learn how to avoid getting HIV and learn skills so they can work, go on to further education and earn a living.

We have made a comittment to support each child that we take on right to the end of his or her school career - this means a commitment of ten to twelve years support. But to do that we rely on the support of our donors around the world, especially in the UK, Switzerland and the USA.