A Year of School Lunches for an AIDS Orphan

For just $20, you can provide school lunches for an entire year for a child who has been orphaned by AIDS.

Of Zambia's 1.2 million orphans, more than half lost their parents to the HIV epidemic. Grandparents and extended families are struggling to provide basic needs for these children. Education can bring hope for a better life for the orphans and for subsequent generations and the right school can help provide for their immediate needs as well.

Cecily's Fund is a non-profit working to improve educational opportunities for Zambia's children, especially for orphans. Cecily's Fund supports a community school, Bwafwano (meaning 'helping one another'). Just outside Zambia's capital of Lusaka, Bwafwano serves over 750 students in grades 1 through 4. While at school, the students receive a much-needed midday meal -- for many, the only meal they will get all day.

Elementary and high school education not only increases these children's chances of avoiding HIV, it also prepares them to try for further education and vocational training. Cecily's Fund has supported over 1,400 children to move on from Bwafwano to secondary school, where they continue to receive help with shoes, uniforms, pens and fees. Elsewhere in Zambia, Cecily's Fund also provides its school graduates with post-school opportunities such as teacher training and training as peer health educators.

You can help! Just $20 feeds, for an entire year, a Zambian child who has been orphaned by AIDS.

Report from the Field
May 2017

Thanks to YOUR donations, Cecily's Fund was able to provide daily school lunches to 67 children for 9 months at BISO Elementary School outside Lusaka. Children like Lee (pictured to the right) are being given an opportunity to learn with the help of Greater Good and Cecily's Fund. Lee was 11 years old when she began to be supported at school by Cecily's Fund in 2016. She has lost both of her parents to AIDS-related diseases and lives with her sister, who has two children of her own to support. Without Cecily's Fund and the generous donations brought in through Greater Good, Lee would not still be in school. Lee is so grateful for the opportunity to get an education and better her life.

Report from the Field
March 2017

GreaterGood enabled 76 orphans and vulnerable children over the 3-month period to receive a midday lunch at BISO Community School, an elementary school (K-4th grade) supported by American Friends of Cecily's Fund in Chazanga Compound, a poor suburb of Lusaka, Zambia. Daily lunches are also provided through our BISO feeding program for older children who have graduated from BISO and moved on to local government schools and are still supported in school by Cecily's Fund.

Children like Esme (pictured first on the right). Esme’s father died shortly after her birth. She lives with her grandmother and 5 of her siblings and cousins. Esme has been supported by Cecily’s Fund at BISO Community School since 2011, from pre-school through 3rd grade. Esme’s grandmother does not have a job and depends on her grandchildren to provide money for food. She said “we don’t manage with food at all. Esme does have lunch at school and we only eat at home when money comes in”. Her grandmother does not have enough money to send all of her grandchildren to school. Esme loves attending BISO school and enjoys her math and art classes. She particularly loves to paint. Esme speaks very happily of the midday meal she receives at school each day, thanks to the support of Cecily's Fund.

Cecily's Fund works with local Zambian partner organizations to enable orphans and vulnerable children to attend primary and secondary school, giving them hope for the future. Cecily's Fund also trains more than 50 graduates each year as peer health educators, giving them the chance to work with school children and so contribute to the fight against AIDS, and supports over 30 orphan school-leavers annually in tertiary education, to study on teacher-training programs.