News and Events

Start Your Holiday Shopping This Year at Our First Ever Annual Holiday Bazaar
Friday November 19th, 10.00am – 3.00pm
Hosted by Kate and Greg Eckersley(President of American Friends of Cecily's Fund) at their home in Scarsdale. Pop in any time and browse our selection of Designer Jewelry - Household Items - Holiday and Tree Decorations hand made in Zambia – other African and International Crafts – Reusable Shopping Bags sewn by the readers of Sew News Magazine Exclusively for Cecily's Fund.

For more details, contact Kate Eckersley kate65@optonline.net or Sue Skaf tudorgrp97@aol.com

Greater Good now offers opportunity to feed Zambian orphans

Greater Good, the on-line donation service, has recently added, via the Hunger Site, the opportunity to provide school lunches for an entire year for a child who has been orphaned or made vulnerable by AIDS . For just $18, you can contribute to the feeding programme at Bwafwano Community School on the outskirts of Lusaka. For many of the 795 children who come to the school, this lunch is the only meal they get all day. Find out more on the Hunger Site

Ladies' Night raises $500

Sue Skaf, held a Ladies' Night at her home on Feb. 5th.  Guests were able to buy cosmetics and costume jewelry from vendors present at the event, who kindly donated their proceeds to Cecily's Fund.  The guests also made donations.  The event raised more than $500.  Good food and wine were enjoyed by all, and it was a wonderful way to "spread the word" and brighten up a cold New York evening!

SewNews readers raise funds with hand-made totes

Sue Skaf, our Development Officer in NY, was contacted by a magazine called SewNews whose readers will be sewing up to 1,000 reusable shopping bags for us in 2010! Each bag will be unique and will be sold at AFCF events throughout the year, as well as at some retail outlets in the NY area. SewNew is a Colarado-based magazine whose readers support a different charity each year. For 2010 they decided on Children's Education as their cause, and chose AFCF as this year's recipient of their generosity!

If you would like to make a tote see our How you can help page.

American Friends of Cecily's Fund goes to the gym

On Saturday October 24th Sue Skaf represented American Friends of Cecily's Fund at an Open House at her local gym, Healthy Fit for Women, in Westchester, NY.  Many friends and neighbors stopped by the table and were very interested to hear about our work with Zambian orphans. Fortuitously, an article about Sue and her September meeting with Zambian President Banda came out in the local newspaper, The Rye Record, on Friday 23rd October, just one day earlier, so members of the local community had already read about our Fund and were very happy to chat to Sue about it in person! Hopefully these events will help to boost support for AFCF in Westchester, NY !

American Friends of Cecily's Fund meets Zambian President

President Rupiah Banda of Zambia was kind enough to grant an audience to Sue Skaf, AFCF Development Officer and Director, on 24th September. They spent half an hour, during the President's visit to New York, discussing the work that Cecily's Fund is doing. The President said "Thank you so much for all you are doing in Zambia, we greatly appreciate it.  Please thank Cecily's parents on my behalf." He was very interested in the concept of encouraging the private sector to give jobs to our school leavers. We hope to be able to stay in touch with the President's office in Zambia to build on this meeting to help ensure that orphans have the best possible opportunities for education and beyond.

The Greater Good supports American Friends of Cecily’ s Fund

American Friends of Cecily’s Fund is now featured on 'The Literacy Site', through their ‘Gifts That Give More’.

Tim Kunin CEO of The Hunger Site Network, which is part of The Greater Good said "We are honored to help Cecily's Fund in Zambia. Providing an education for HIV orphans gives people a future. They are doing really important work."

You can help AFCF to support orphaned and vulnerable children in Zambia by purchasing Gifts That Give More online, using the following links:

1: Support a child to attend school
2: Support a young person to train to become a teacher

Annual Report 2009

Click here to download the Cecily's Fund 2009 Annual Report in PDF format.

Sue Skaf takes Cecily's Fund to the soccer field

Sue Skaf has sponsored her daughter Vicky's team this fall for the Mamaroneck Junior Soccer League. At the opening game Saturday Sept.11th, 12 Cecily's Fund team members proudly wore their orange T-shirts, providing great publicity for us and peaking the interest of the parents on the sidelines. The team will play until Thanksgiving in Mamaroneck and let's hope their orange shirts lead them to victory! Walid Skaf, Sue's husband, coaches the team each year.