Cecily's Fund Blog

Tinkani's blog - Friday

Sabita — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:36:00 +0100

Today was a busy day. I woke up early in the morning, did the washing and prepared myself for work. When I got back from work, it was about 1pm and I had to get ready to go and attend the funeral in Chibuluma.

Tinkani's blog - Thursday

Sabita — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 12:53:00 +0100

Today I am going to spend the entire day at home. I finish sweeping and take a bath after my breakfast at 10 am. I have just received a phone call from my friend saying that her brother’s wife is seriously ill. I feel bad because she is a good person.

Tinkani's blog - Wednesday

Sabita — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 19:59:00 +0100

By 10.30am I am ready for work- waiting for my partner to come and pick me up for work. We reached the school premises hoping to find a large number of students;

Tinkani's blog - Tuesday

Sabita — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:28:00 +0100

Sabita

Tinkani's blog - Tuesday 20th July 2009
I woke up around 7 am and cleaned the bedroom and the entire house. I ate nshima (a thick paste made of corn flour, the staple diet for most Zambians) for breakfast because I did not want to eat sweet potatoes. I was at my Auntie’s place around 9 am. It was then that my mother called me and told me that she had decided to shift back to our house... I was actually very happy because I miss her a lot.

Tinkani's blog - Monday

Sabita — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 17:20:00 +0100

My name is Tinkani Ngoma. I am a seventeen years old. My father died three years ago in March when I was in grade ten. Ever since then, my life has been very difficult because my mother struggled very much just to pay for my school fees, provide me with the school necessities. (Cecily’s Fund helps children in Tinkani’s situation by providing them with shoes, uniforms, books, pens and help with school fees.)

Last Day and Final Reflections

Admin — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 15:58:00 +0100

It is sadly my final day in the Cecily's Fund office and so I thought I should make a final blog. I have really enjoyed my time in the office in little New Yatt, working alongside the very lovely team and learning all about how a small international charity operates. I will have a lot to take away from my experience, but am positive I will continue to fundraise for Cecily's Fund and get Stop AIDS as a national body more and more involved with the charity.

Today I did a mailout with Helen for the London and Brighton Marathon and have continued with the projects that I was given at the start of the internship...media strategy, 'how to..' guides and web updates.

I hope that I will get the chance to work for a similar charity, like Cecily's Fund, after I graduate as this is what I am really passionate about. I really think my time here will help me, definately something great for the CV. I recommend other students (and non-students) to come volunteer in the office for a short time at least, a long time even better! Or just generally get up and fundraise for the charity! In Cardiff we have had such fun doing so and will continue to in the future.

All the best to Cecily's Fund. Thanks very much for letting me come visit.

Day Four

Sabita — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 14:56:00 +0100

There is something about this blog that makes me want to start with a geordie 'Day Four in the Cecily's Fund Office'... clearly have been influenced by Big Brother, despite claiming never to have watched it. Anyway sorry to have missed out on a day three blog.. I was basically working over the little jobs and bits as mentioned previously, and had a chat with Anne about her role as accountant and number crunching. Also had a chat with Caroline about her role as manager and found out what she had done previously, she really inspired me to consider International service in a few years.

I am back to complete my last couple of days volunteering in the office and final attempt at cracking on with some of the projects that I have been given. I am trying to finish my 'media strategy' research, which involves searching for some interesting publications to gain media attention on a national level, as well as getting into corporate magazines...accountancy etc. With the breadth of things that Cecily's Fund do, there are certainly lots of different angles for articles and different publications that could offer editorial content. I hope this can be useful for the team at a later date as I think it could be great publicity.

Other bits and bobs I have got done...Finally booked the pre-show drinks venue for the 'Crazy For You' preshow drinks, which will be at the Courthouse Hotel. See updates on the website for more info on that.

Had a nice chat with Helen about her role as fundraising officer, which was really interesting. Going to start working on some mail outs for her with the London Marathon and Crazy For You show. More tomorrow for my last day at Cecily's Fund.

Day Two

Sabita — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:43:00 +0100

It is my second day in the Cecily's Fund office. Been busy working my way through my jobs...Started by looking for a place to host the 'Crazy For You' pre show-drinks for Cecily's Fund in October. I have discovered that most hotel bars around the West End tend to enjoy the purple velvet and gold style ('swanky' is the word) and one had a quite unusual take on using eyes to decorate the backs of bar stools. Anyway, I wrote some emails to some local hotels and a bar so hopefully they will get back to me asap. I started making 'how to organise...' sheets for different events that Stop AIDS have put on which was enjoyable and gave me a chance to think over plans for the next year! Hopefully we will be able to get Cecily's Fund as our charity to support for Raid Festival (our world AIDS day music and arts festival) this year, which would be lovely.

I also had a nice chat with Jemma about her role as admin-assistant and she talked me through Donor Strategy, the beast of spread sheets really, and other bits and bobs that her job involves. I found Donor Strategy really interesting to look at and it obviously has so much potential (We enjoyed looking at a 'Mr Frogface'). You can see that throughout her career here that Cecily's has just gone on to get bigger and better. I think it is nice how personal that the thankyou letters make donating here also.

Tomorrow I shall be looking into media strategy a little more (hopefully finding I've learnt something in the previous two years at Cardiff) and spending a bit longer on the Cecily facebook and twitter site.

And must I say a lovely view from the office. You can see why New Yatt was the location of choice.

Diary of an Internship at Cecily's Fund, by Kate

Sabita — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 16:26:00 +0100

Day one of my internship with Cecily's Fund.

Last day of work experience

Sabita — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:57:00 +0100

Today was my last day of work experience. Through the day i have made two more display boards for various gatherings and fundraising events. I have greatly enjoyed my week here, and can't believe that its over. Whilst being here i have learned alot about the history and the jobs involved. I have enjoyed the experience of being in the workplace, loved meeting and working with the people here (who are lovely) and am sad that it's over. I'm one of those people who has no idea what i want to do when i grow up, and even-though working at Cecily's Fund has not particularly changed that, it has given me a definate option for a career. I think that Cecily's Fund is an amazing charity, which is well worth supporting in everyway possible.

Children who are helped by Cecily's Fund...

Sabita — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:35:00 +0100

For the last 3 days i have done three/four time-consuming jobs. On tuesday i made an album of pictures, captions and bits of writing about the 10th anniversary of Cecily's Fund. This was fun and very interesting, as i saw alot of pictures of the children and the staff. I also learned a few things by doing this too, for example, about the beautiful flame tree that was planted in Cecily's memory. It also enabled me to see the children that Cecily's Fund helps, which gave me a greater sense of how Cecily's Fund helps them, and how its effecting them. Late on tuesday afternoon and on wednesday morning, i read through some more case studies and matched pictures up to them. This was very interesting, as i learned about alot of children who are helped by Cecily's Fund, their experiences and home-life. One story that i particulary found interesting was a little girl in grade four. She lives with her grandmother who had been suffering with malaria. From what Cecily's Fund can guess, she is a double orphan, and shares a 2 bedroom house with 3 other people. On wednesday after-noon and thursday morning, i worked on the data-base. I was reading through a list of everybody that attended this years Opera event, and making sure that everybody was in the data-base (and if not, put them in) and making sure that the entries all had that they had attended. This was quite time-consuming, but not dull. It showed me the large number of supporters Cecily's Fund has, and that they come from all over the place.

First Day Of Work Experience

Sabita — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:54:00 +0100

My name is Molly, i am in year 10 at a local school, and i have come to work at Cecily's for a week for my work experience. My first day of work experience was very pleasant and interseting. I have learned alot about the history, for example, about Cecily herself. I have learned about her Gap year adventure to Zambia, and how it very unfortunatly and suddenly ended when she died in a car incident and how her parents realised that they have lost their child, but there are alot of children in Zambia losing their parents, so they wanted to do something about it. I have also learned about the different areas of the organisationand what they do and about the friends of Cecily's fund in America and Switzerland. This is my first time in a work place, so it has been very interesting to see what it is like, and how everything happens. I am greatly looking forward to the rest of the week, and the different jobs i will do. Today i have sorted out files and photos, to help make them easier to find, i have read through interviews from trips to Zambia, and put them into an interview form, put D.V.Ds into cases and done some photocopying. I have a feeling that i will learn alot throughout the week, about Cecily's Fund and what a week at work is really like.

Brave new world...

Sabita — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:35:00 +0000

Today we saw Brave, who Cecily's Fund has supported through school and college. He recently finished at COSETCO teacher training college and is now employed at Springboard private school in Kitwe. He is lucky to only have nine pupils for pure science but is nonetheless rising to the challenge of having no lab equipment with which to bring cathodes and anodes to life. Helen and I were enthralled in his electrochemistry lesson. He is brilliant. I might have chosen a different career had he been my teacher!

Caroline writes from Zambia

Sabita — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 17:30:00 +0000

Helen and I met a young man called Andsen Shoma today. Andsen is about to complete his third year’s training at Kitwe College of Education (KCE). We have supported him since grade 8. After completing grade 12 he went on to become a peer health educator with CHEP and then to study at KCE. For the past year he has been doing his teaching practice in a community school for street and vulnerable children in Kitwe’s Mindolo compound.

As soon as Kasamba (Hodi’s Logistics Officer), Helen and I arrived at Salem Village community school, we set out to find the Head Teacher to make the usual introductions before proceeding to meet Andsen. You can imagine our surprise when we were introduced to the Head Teacher who was no other than Andsen himself!

Andsen is due to finish teaching practice next week and with that, the diploma course at KCE. The Director of Salem Village recognised Andsen’s leadership skills and was quick to offer him the Head Teacher position when it became vacant in January. Although he only receives a relatively small living allowance for this voluntary position (500 kwacha per month), the opportunity will provide 23-year-old Andsen with invaluable experience while he waits to be posted as a permanent teacher by the government.

Counting Blessings...

Sabita — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 18:05:00 +0100

I was offered a lift back to Lusaka on Tursday. Cruising down the Great North Road in the aged Toyota Venture, reggae music blaring out for the entire four hour journey, I reflected on my last interview in Kitwe. It was with a young man called Blessings Zulu, a Cecily’s Fund graduate now grown up and settled with a good job.
People often ask me what the long term prospects are for the children we support through school. It’s a good question, since unemployment is high in Zambia (estimated at 50% in 2000). The economy is dependent on mining, particular copper mining, but even the mines can’t absorb all of Zambia’s tens of thousands of orphans, even the few thousand that we help to complete their schooling.
So what else is there for them to do? When you ask children here what they want to do, their responses are the stuff of dreams rather than reality; some as old as 18 and still in grade 8 or 9 say they want to be a judge or a pilot, or a television newsreader. Others aspire to emulate the professionals who have helped their families through terrible suffering; teachers, nurses, doctors. I tried changing my question from “What do you want to do?” to “What do you plan to do?” Even then none mentioned the most likely prospects for them, selling vegetables or bags of charcoal in the market, becoming a bus driver, a garden boy, or even a miner.
Then, on my very last day in Kitwe, I met Blessings Zulu. Blessings is part of the Youth Anti-AIDS Network, or YAN – a spin-off of the Copperbelt Health Education Programme through whom Cecily’s Fund delivers its peer health education training. Blessings’ story reflected that of so many of the children I’ve met on this trip; both his parents died when he was very young, he was brought up by his aunt, a widow caring for five orphans as well as two children of her own, plus her aging mother. She struggled to hold down a job and sell clothes in the market to pay for all their school fees. Then Cecily’s Fund started paying Blessings’ fees and providing the clothes and equipment he needed for school. He passed all his exams, and then went on to our teacher training programme. But this wasn’t his true vocation. Seeing what Cecily’s Fund, and our partners were doing for him and others like him, he was iinspired to do similar work.
While at college, he and a few others set up YAN to train young people to be peer health educators. They got funding from various organisations and with the small salary he drew from that, he left teacher training college and paid his way through a social work course at the University of Zambia. Blessings was apologetic for “letting us down” by dropping out of his teacher training course. But I reassured him that he had nothing to apologise for; he had used his education, his initiative and his determination to fulfil his aspirations. In the process he is benefitting countless others by helping them understand how to avoid HIV. Isn’t that exactly what Cecily’s Fund exists for? As Blessings put it, “Without you people I would have been a bus driver or someone very low. But because of my inner strength and my respect for the help that you gave me, I am where I am today.”
Tomorrow the flame trees will again be replaced by English Autumn leaves and I will begin the delicious job of incorporating all the touching and inspiring stories that I’ve heard from some amazing people, young and old, into our communications to you. I’ll also be putting the snippets of video film of Zambian children singing onto the website, to kick start our Make Music Give Hope fundraising campaign which will be launched on December 6th. I hope you’ll join us.
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Traditions benign and not so benign...

Sabita — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 16:09:00 +0100

Tomorrow is my last day in Kitwe, and Friday, Independece Day, is my last in Zambia. I’ve interviewed over 40 people and taken hundreds of photographs and video clips which I’m really excited about sharing with Cecily’s Fund supporters over the coming months. I’m hot and exhausted and missing my daughter, but I’ll be sad to leave. Everywhere I’ve been, whether to class rooms, staff rooms, teacher training colleges or people’s homes (however humble), I’ve been welcomed with the same gentle, respectful warmth. No Zambian conversation can begin without an unhurried greeting and enquiry after each others’ health, properly answered and with a decent pause before the business begins.

Etiquette is always properly observed. Each school visit begins with a formal visit to the Head Teacher’s office where introductions are made, welcomes extended, mutual gratitude expressed. The Zambian handshake is a three-part manoevre, handshake-fistgrip-handshake. Children – boys and girls - greet their elders with a curtsey and their left hand over their hearts. Older people greet you with a serries of claps and murmured traditional welcomes which, sadly, I'm told are impossible to translate.

Some of Zambia’s traditions, however, are not so benign. Today we observed a peer education session led by Patricia, whose home I visited yesterday. She and her peer education partner, Melvin, urged the grade 9 children to question and challenge those traditional and cultural practices that increase the risk of spreading HIV; practices like the reluctance of parents to talk to their children about sexual issues, sexual “cleansing”, or circumcision using a single blade for multiple initiates. In a culture which reveres age and tradition, it takes courage for young people to speak out against them.

The pupils in the class were equally courageous in asking delicate questions; “Why do they say a woman has to be shy and quiet in front of a man? How can she deal with problems if she has to be quiet?”, “If you marry a man and he dies, and you are supposed to marry his younger brother, does that clear you of HIV?”, “Does circumsicion prevent you from getting HIV?” (the answer is No). Neither were they afraid to raise their hands to say whether or not they had had an HIV test or to perform dramas in front of their whole class about the highly sensitive issues that surround HIV, sex, infidelity, death... But then, from an early age Zambian children are never far from HIV messages; they are painted on walls, introduced in classrooms before each lesson, discussed at anti-AIDS clubs after school and in these peer education sessions.

There is a loud and heated debate going on around me in the internet café about the pros and cons of presidents past, present and potential. Truckloads of campaigners drive up and down with horns blaring. Whoever is voted in next Thursday will inherit a generation armed with impressive knowledge and understanding of how HIV is spread, with a growing awareness of their rights as children and their rights and duties as men and women. I hope they will be able to create an environment in which such brave, committed, knowledgeable children can thrive, in which benign traditions survive and not so benign ones are adapted to be safe.

In the meantime Cecily’s Fund, through our partners Bwafwano, Hodi and CHEP, is helping at least a sizeable portion of them to go to school, to learn and teach about HIV and to train to become teachers. From what I’ve seen and heard, it’s a good start. A very good start. Each child that has been through Cecily’s Fund support emerges not only more educated and aware, but more sensitive to the needs of the orphans and vulnerable children coming up behind them and more committed to doing what they can to help.

When I return to Zambia next year I will seek out the same children and young people as I’ve met this year and see how their lives have developed. As years go by we will hopefully build up a bigger picture of the long term impact that your support has on the lives of these children. From what I’ve seen and heard, the education alone gives them a head start in life and in avoiding the risks of HIV.
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Why do all the people who seem to be cool lose their lives?

Sabita — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:33:00 +0100

Today I have visited the homes of two of our Peer Health Educators; young people who have finished school and are volunteering to run sessions at schools, with training and support from Cecily’s Fund partner, CHEP. Yesterday I sat in on a session run by Laston and his female counterpart. The session, for a lively group of grade 8 students, mostly around 15 years old, focused on the dangers of drugs and alcohol. To illustrate these, the peer educators had worked with some of the children to prepare a drama – a hair-raising and hilarious tale of three drunken louts who persuade a virtuous wife to get drunk with them. It all ends in tears with the wife pregnant and infected with HIV, the husband suicidal and the drunken friends full of regret and wishing they’d listened to what their peer educators had told them at school.

Although the drunken louts – acted out with great gusto - got the loudest cheers from the class, Laston explained afterwards that this was only because they know people like that at home, and that the peer educators work with them to understand “Why do all the people who seem to be cool lose their lives?” The answer, of course, is HIV, sinc drunkenness leads to risky behavour. A lesson that the peer educators are drumming into young people again and again.

Both Laston and Patricia, who I also visited, had heartening success stories to tell. Patricia said they set the children a test when they start their regular sessions to see how much they know about HIV and other health and children’s rights issues. They test them again at the end of the year and see consistently improved scores. Accurate knowledge is probably the greatest weapon against HIV. But knowledge alone won’t help – only if it leads to changes in behaviour. And Patricia tells me that children now come up to her after sessions and say “Madam! That girl is having a boyfriend, you should talk to her!” showing that awareness is changing, leading to less risky behaviour.

For the peer educators themselves, the experience of being sponsored to learn the communication and training skills that come with being a peer educator have been really valuable. But more than what they are getting out of it themselves, Laston, Patricia and all the peer educators I’ve met have felt deeply gratified at the opportunity to help younger children. They were inspired by peer educators themselves, and they go on to inspire others. This is clearly a programme with a virtuous spiral of benefits to all concerned.
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The orphans' manifesto...

Sabita — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 15:36:00 +0100

The air is buzzing with excitement about the Zambian presidential elections on October 30th. As we were lunching on nshima (a thick porridge made of maize or “mealie-meal”) and impala meat in the café opposite our partner Hodi’s offices in Kitwe, a lorry load of brightly dressed ladies singing the praises of the ruling MMD party’s Rupiah Banda, cruised by to the good humoured hoots and jeers of the opposition candidate Michael Sata supporters in the café. The ladies responded with more energetic singing, gestures and laughter.

I’ve been asking school children, trainee teachers, grandparents and teachers what advice they would give to the incoming president. Predictably, perhaps, the school children advise him to invest more in education, the teachers suggest better wages and conditions for teachers, and the grandmothers caring for their late children’s children urge him to look after widows and orphans and take care of the price of mealie-meal, the price of which is a barometer of poverty or wellbeing.
But the trainee teachers I met in COSETCO had more constructive advice; they advised expanding Zambia’s agricultural industry and investing more in tourism as well as making sure that Zambia gets a fairer share of the income from foreign investment in the copper mines on which the Zambian economy heavily relies. Linety, in her first year as a home economics teacher, pointed out that it’s poverty that drives the HIV epidemic, and improving the country’s economy would go along way to countering it. It was lovely to chat with these bright, engaged, committed young people who are soon going to go out and teach in schools all over Zambia. And hard to imagine that they came from the kind of homes I’ve been visiting where there is barely enough money for two meals a day, let alone school fees, uniforms and books. It really makes me feel proud to belong to the organization that’s helped them get there.
And to put the icing on the cake, today we got this email out of the blue; “I just want to express my sincere appreciation for the support you had provided to me and the entire family through CINDI* ZAMBIA. I was under your programme through my primary and secondary education as well as my tertiary education at Kitwe College of Education. I’m now a teacher at a private school and my life is now much easier. I just want to express my sincere appreciation for the support you had provided. You saw me through my academic life and am now a teacher. I thank you very much because you have given me something no one cannot take away from me. May God richly bless you as you continue helping others.
*Our original partners. We now work through Hodi to deliver our education programmes.
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Tell Cecily's Fund supporters we really appreciate them...

Sabita — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 19:31:00 +0100

The flame trees are in bloom, looking like they've caught fire from the sweltering sky - 33 degrees today in Kitwe. Internet connection is as rare as cool breezes, but there is equal warmth in the messages that the children and teachers in Bwafwano and here in Kitwe have asked me to give you. Misozi, whose name means 'tears of sorrow' because her brother died the day she was born, says "My name is now tears of joy." because of the support that has enabled her to become the trainee teacher she now is. As an orphan who had lost both parents by the age of seven, her chances of success were very slim. Now she is a smartly dressed young lady, on teaching practice at her old school. Her smile, as she leads a class of nine year olds through their maths and then a song about being assertive and standing strong when friends try to lead you astray, is dazzling.

I've visited five or six schools and been to the homes of some of the orphans to meet their adoptive families and everywhere I've been, the message has been the same. "Thank you so much and may God bless you richly for helping us. Please continue the good work you are doing. Without it I don't know where I would have been". Children in neat uniforms, revising for their end of term exams, have told me of friends who dropped out of school and turned to alcohol, and said how easily that could have been them.

Being here in person, you really get a sense of the overwhelming level of need. For every child we support there are many others who need help. But it's also so gratifying to meet not only the children, who talk about education with such appreciation, but the dedicated teachers who co-ordinate our support for them. Like Mrs Kaira at Mukuba High School who said "I think of the children as my own. I think if my children were in their situation, would there be someone to support them?".

The most moving messages came from trainee teacher Violet Mwaba who is featured in our 2008 Annual Report. She said "I am very grateful for where I am - and i know I'm going somewhere and it's because of you." And trainee teacher Brave who said "With education Zambia will definitely improve. I feel proud and happy about where I am now. We have our final exams in December and I promise we won't let you down!"

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Messages from the children and teachers of Bwafwano to Cecily's Fund Supporters

Sabita — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 23:09:00 +0100

Again and again during the two days I have just spent at Bwafwano Community Centre, which incorporates the school for orphans and vulnerable children that is funded entirely by Cecily's Fund, people have said how much they appreciate what Cecily's Fund is doing by supporting them. I promised to pass their messages on to you - here are two typical examples; Margaret Kaira, one of the teachers said "I am so grateful not only for what you are doing for the children, but also for us teachers. With the money I get for this job I am helping my siblings to go to school. My mother died when I was very, very young and my elder sister worked so hard to put us through school. Now I feel I am able to give something back. Dominic (not his real name), who lives with his grandmother and eight siblings and cousins said "Thank you to those who are supporting me to go to school. May God bless them. They have made me what I am today" Today Dominic is a smartly dressed student at New Kabanana school who hopes one day to study law - and maybe even become a judge.

I have been so impressed with Bwafwano. It is a much bigger operation than the school, which itself teaches 650 children, crammed four to a desk, in shifts through the day. There is also a clinic, a home based care centre and another four programmes which act as a vital safety net for the impoverished families of Chazanga suburb. But everything works together like finely tuned clockwork. Today and yesterday I met children who had been taken out of school because their parents had become bedridden. Bwafwano found them, brought them back to school - free of charge thanks to Cecily's Fund supporters - in some cases parents had been referred to the Bwafwano clinic where they pay a small fee for treatment (children are treated free) and linked them with other organisations who could help them build a decent shelter to live in. Then when they go on to the government schools, Bwafwano continues to care for them, by keeping in touch with the teachers there.

This is done by Mr Kataso, the headteacher. Like a benign pied piper, he is greeted warmly by children wherever he goes - in Bwafwano itself and in the government schools elsewhere in Chazanga. He seems to know them all by name, although there are hundreds of them. And he can tell you the background of each one. The teachers in the government schools told me that of all the organisations helping them "Bwafwano is the best", and much of this is due to Mr Kataso's passion, committment and the way he includes everyone in decisions and discussions about what is best for the children.

But my biggest thrill was meeting Esther (11) and Ethel (8), two very bright and confident littles girls living in great poverty with their grandmother and several other siblings. They had told their teacher they were so happy to finally be in school that they'd written a poem about it. They recited it for me to film and I hope to be able to share it with you when I get back to England. They summed up perfectly the happiness and relief that being able to go to school brings these children. They live in a dry, dusty suburb, down a long, red dusty track where few of the adults have jobs, apart from selling vegetables or coal at tiny stalls in the local market, and the children have little to model their hopes on. At school they come into contact with teachers, and many say that's what they want to be. Even if this is a reflection of the fact that they meet no other professionals, it is also a reflection of the kindness with which the teachers give their
support, and the high value that the children place on the knowledge they gain from them.

Tomorrow I take the 5 hour bus journey to Kitwe to visit the children we support there through our partners Hodi and CHEP.
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Preparing for departure

Sabita — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:11:00 +0100

By this time on Sunday I'll be looking at Zambian flame trees instead of the golden English autumn trees I can see through our office window. I'm very excited about meeting our children face-to-face and hearing their stories. The purpose of the trip is partly for me to become more familiar with our work so that I can answer any of your questions, but also to gather stories, photos and video footage to share with you all over the coming months. I'll try to add to this blog every day or so and let you know what I'm seeing and hearing. There may also be messages from the children, teachers and partners. Back to Cecily's Fund website