Message from the chair of trustees of Cecily’s Fund:
I am delighted to be able to give our supporters some really good news about Cecily’s Fund.
For some time we have been looking to appoint more trustees. In the first half of this year our appointments sub-committee conducted a careful selection procedure. Because we are now operating mostly online our trustees no longer have to live within reach of Oxfordshire, and we were able to attract applications from overseas as well as from the UK. These included three exceptional candidates from Zambia. In July we decided unanimously to appoint all three.
Caleb Masusu is Democracy Manager in the Global Leadership Team of the international charity Restless Development. He has many years of experience in youth-based programmes in Zambia.
Nick Mwela is an accountant with 14 years’ experience in HR and Finance for major charities working in Zambia.
Collins Simugwenkwe has a degree in economics and over 8 years’ experience in NGO project management in Zambia.
Last week we welcomed them all to their first meeting. They each have particular expertise to contribute to our work, but I am sure that they will also help ensure that our programmes are, and are seen to be, fully attuned to the needs and day-to-day realities of Zambia. Their appointment is a milestone in the history of Cecily’s Fund and testimony to our confidence in its future.
Further testimony to that is our decision to update our constitution. We were set up in 1998 as a charitable trust. Cecily’s Fund was recognised by the Charity Commission as our ‘working name’ but legally we were the Cecily Eastwood Zambian AIDS Orphans Appeal (charity number 1071660). With effect from the beginning of next year we will operate as a newly approved Charitable Incorporated Organisation with a much improved constitution and Cecily’s Fund as our legal name.
On our website and documentation you may spot that the charity number for the CIO is now 1208951. It will also have a new bank account. We will, however, retain the old charitable trust and the old bank accounts for the time being, so that you do not need to change standing orders or other existing payment arrangements; payments to the Trust will automatically be passed over to the CIO.
At our meeting last week we also discussed our Director Cheryl’s report on her trip to Zambia last month. She has come back with exciting suggestions of ways to build on our youth-led school-based model for community development. We now have to refine these ideas - and then to work with you our supporters and funders to implement them.
Exciting times indeed!
Steph Harland
Chair of Trustees
