Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
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good works "were in for the long haul" Village Church member Maddie King with a friend in Fumbelo. on a single objective: getting kids into school. Government schools in Zambia are free but students need a uniform, shoes, a backpack, and school supplies to attend. Few children can afford to attend. For a gift of $100, CWB can provide a child with the necessities to attend pri- mary school; for $300, secondary school. When Rose, King, and the FOF team first visited Fumbelo, they CWB was founded in 2000 by Richard Bail, MD, who had seen firsthand the very limited education available to many Zambian chil- dren, especially those orphaned by parents who died of AIDS. With its mission to educate vulnerable children while building community- to-community relationships, CWB aims to have a positive impact on children today, their families, and future generations. Liz King of the Village Church and others came on board. "We sat down with CWB and they offered us a village they described as 'the poorest of the poor,'" Rose recalls. "That was Fumbelo. We took it." Fumbelo is an unplanned settlement on the outskirts of Lusaka, the Zambian capital, with a growing population of somewhere between 5,000 and 20,000. The Wellesley team formed Friends of Fumbelo (FOF) to operate under the CWB 501(c)(3) umbrella and began fundraising for their Zambian partners. Like other successful non-governmental agencies (NGOs) that dis- tribute mosquito nets, vaccinate children, or build wells, CWB focuses 140 were concerned that many children receiving their school kits would have difficulty learning because they were hungry and sick. "We decided we were in for the long haul and our mission would be all- encompassing," Rose says. FOF currently sponsors about 150 children annually in government schools. Additionally, FOF funds a school lunch program at the community school and twice-monthly visits to the settlement from a medical doctor and nurse. For the past five years, FOF has sent a team to Fumbelo in June when the school year here concludes. Teams have ranged from six to seventeen members who spend their days in the settlement. They arrive with trunk-loads of school and medical supplies, clothing, and sports equipment that the local NGO, Society of Women and AIDS in Zambia (SWAAZ) will distribute. Relationships have grown deep because the core group visits annually and English is the language taught in school. (Zambia was a British colony until 1964.) About 45 people have made the two-week visit to Fumbelo. Sarah Bradach, a senior at Wellesley High School, has visited twice, most recently in 2012 and in 2010 with her dad Jeff Bradach, a founder of The Bridgespan Group and an expert on strategy and scale for non- profits. Sarah loves being with the people of Fumbelo, especially teach- ing and reading to the children. "Some kids have never seen a book. They're amazed to turn the pages," she says. FOF creates incentives to stay in school by awarding a certificate and a dictionary to students who pass the 7th grade exam and a bicy- cle to 9th graders who pass the country-wide test to enter 10th grade. WellesleyWeston Magazine | winter 2012/2013