We are excited to announce that we are establishing a new Zambian sister organisation –Cecily’s Fund (Zambia). We are also making significant changes at Cecily’s Fund.
For some time we have been working ever more closely with a new generation of Zambians, including our own Cecily’s Fund alumni. These are people who have grown up with the charity over the last 25 years and who are now helping us to take the work forward. Thus Cecily’s Fund now has three Zambia-based Zambian trustees. We employed our first staff member in Zambia over a year ago.
We are now starting start a transition which will see our colleagues, alumni and partners in Zambia increasingly take the lead in managing and developing our work.
Our three Zambian Trustees, together with Cecily’s Fund founder Basil Eastwood, will lead the development of the new Zambian organisation and will ensure our close coordination with it going forward.
Cecily’s Fund UK will continue to raise funds and to report back to our supporters and funders in the UK and internationally. We will make sure that together the two organisations maintain Cecily’s Fund’s high standards in the management and reporting of our work. We believe that Cecily’s Fund (Zambia) will enable us to do that work even better.
There is a continuing, and clear need for the work we do, but times are tough for all charities at the moment. By establishing Cecily’s Fund (Zambia), we will be able to reduce our staff and running costs in the UK and make our donors’ continuing support go even further. We also expect that Cecily’s Fund (Zambia) will attract support from new sources which we aren’t able to access as a solely UK-based organisation.
In September 2025 we moved from a staff team of 5 in the UK to a much-reduced staff team and more volunteers. We are happy to report that our long-term Director Cheryl Hooper will continue to advise us on a part-time basis, and that other long-term members of staff have offered to help us on a voluntary basis in future. We are all powered by the knowledge that the work we do gives young Zambians the ability to change their own lives, and the lives of their families and communities.
Our work this year is going well with some exciting new developments across our programmes in Kitwe, Luansobe, Lusaka and Chingola. We will be reporting on these in our next Newsletter which will appear in October. To carry on our good work we need continued support. We welcome donors’ comments, suggestions and questions. We therefore invite anyone interested to join us at an online session to discuss what’s happening at Cecily’s Fund and our plans for the future on Thursday 20th November at 1pm. A link will be available on this website in the coming weeks but you can also email us at: [email protected]
With best wishes
Steph Harland Basil Eastwood
Chair of Trustees Founder
