Project for 2009


  Cecily’s Fund: Kitwe Peer Health Education Programme [pdf]
 
Cecily’s Fund supports the education of over eight thousand Zambian children who have been orphaned or made vulnerable because of HIV and who might not otherwise have the opportunity to go to school. By increasing their chances of employability after school and thus their economic independence, we turn vulnerability into viability. 
 
Cecily Eastwood was from Oxfordshire and nineteen when she died in a road accident in Zambia in 1997. Her parents, Basil and Alison, used the money that was donated at her funeral towards the education of the orphans she had been working with at the time. A year later they visited Zambia and realised that, without their continued support, these children would drop out of school. On their return they established Cecily’s Fund. 
 
Since then we have promised to support every child who we start in school, through to the end of his or her school career. And we have kept this promise. The significance of this commitment was best expressed by one of our school graduates, Gertrude Tembo, earlier this year: “I am so grateful to Cecily’s Fund. Other charities come and go but Cecily’s Fund supports children throughout their schooling. It is unique.” 
 
HIV has had a devastating impact on communities in the Copperbelt region of Zambia. It has resulted in a missing generation of parents and produced a generation of orphaned children. We believe that these children should be part of the solution and not just part of the problem. We support some children beyond school to train as teachers or, like Gertrude herself, to become volunteer peer health educators and help the next generation stay free from HIV. 
 
With Kennington Overseas Aid’s help, we can continue this invaluable response to the HIV epidemic by helping thousands of schoolchildren to make informed decisions so that they stay healthy. We would like to request £20,116 from Kennington Overseas Aid to train 50 of our young people (who will graduate from Grade 12 in December) as peer health educators and support them to share potentially life-saving health information with over 7,000 Zambian school children.



The full proposal can be downloaded by clicking on the pdf link above. 
Clicking on the charity's name will take you to the charity's own web sites. 

If you would like a printed copy of the full proposal, please phone or email Clive Rodgers (739447),  Sylvia Vetta (739071), or Brenda Groth (739229).