URGENT Need for Donations

This generous donation of textbooks by Council Rock School District has created a pressing need for funding to transport the books to South Africa.  Herron & Associates, LLC of Media, PA, a freight forwarding company, has offered to ship the containers “virtually at cost” which means that they are essentially donating any profits they would earn to the organization. However, there still exists and outstanding amount of $7,500 and Miss Vicky’s Non-Profit Foundation is seeking contributions of any monetary level.  A corporate contribution would be a great way for a local corporation to make a big difference in the lives of hundreds of kids.  

Courier Times Article

CR donating thousands of old reading books

By Chris English Staff Writer | Posted: Thursday, June 21, 2012 12:00 am

Thousands of old elementary school reading books no longer needed in Council Rock aren’t going to waste.

The school district is going to a different elementary reading program starting in the 2012-13 school year and replacing all the reading materials, said Director of Elementary Education/Curriculum Services Joy McClendon.

The old books are going to various places. Most recently, Council Rock arranged to donate 21,000 of them to Miss Vicky’s Children’s Education Fund, a nonprofit foundation founded by Northampton resident Debra Marra.

Marra’s group will arrange for and fund shipment of the books to the Vusamanzi Primary School in Khayelitsha, near Cape Town, South Africa. The children there will be thrilled to get them, she said.

“Half the people there are illiterate and I’m a firm believer in the fact that education is one of the best ways to improve the world,” said Marra.

She started the foundation after a visit to Cape Town and the surrounding area in 2007. The nonprofit is named for Vicky Ntonzini, a Cape Town resident who devotes much of her life to helping children get an education and assisting them in other ways.

In addition to the shipment of books, the foundation is also funding much of the expense for Council Rock reading specialist Laura Harrington to teach at the Khayelitsha school for several weeks later this summer.

McClendon, Marra, Council Rock students and staff and other volunteers recently helped pack the reading books for shipment.

McClendon said she and other school district officials first tried, without success, to see if a publisher wanted to buy the old reading books. Council Rock then let any students who wanted the books take them home.

With thousands of volumes remaining, district elementary schools found creative ways to deal with the issue, said McClendon.

Students and staff at Sol Feinstone Elementary School in Upper Makefield joined with the Newtown Rotary Club to donate thousands of the books to schools at Native American reservations in New Mexico and South Dakota. And at Wrightstown Elementary, arrangements were made to ship many of books to children in Haiti, said McClendon.

“It’s very rewarding to know these books will be put to good use in these places and will help children learn how to read,” she said.

For more information on Marra’s foundation, visit missvickyschildrenseducation.blogspot.com or email debra.lynn.marra@gmail.com.

Press Release 2012

Non-Profit Sends Third Teacher to Cape Town, South Africa

Khayelitsha Township eagerly awaits skill set of USA teacher

We are pleased to announce the upcoming departure of our third volunteer teacher, Laura Harrington, to Khayelitsha, a township in Cape Town, South Africa. Laura is a reading specialist in Council Rock School District of Bucks County, PA. In addition to volunteering several weeks of her time to educate children in Khayelitsha, fellow teachers in many Council Rock Elementary Schools held dress down days to raise money for the shipping of donated textbooks and reading books in anticipation of the building of a school library. Previously Tanya Anderson, Welch Elementary School Guidance Counselor and Caroline Kerns, St. Joseph’s University graduate offered their teaching skills to Khayelitsha’s children.

Assisting with loading books at a Council Rock’s Goodnoe Elementary School include Joy McClendon (Director of Elementary Education/Curriculum Services), Sue Kacergis, Patricia Erickson (RELA Curriculum Coordinator, K-6), Rick Plassio, Nicole Crawford (Principal at Goodnoe), Mike Hellman, Ellen Wilson, Laura Harrington, Holland resident and Temple University student Julie Erickson, Churchville resident and CR South Senior Ross McDaniel and Holy Ghost Prep student and Ivyland resident, Christopher Marra. 

Council Rock School District generously donated 21,000 primary school level language arts textbooks which will be shipped via ocean container to Vusamanzi Primary School in Khayelitsha.

Holy Ghost Prep students Brian Nachtburn, Christopher Marra and Joe O’Connor filled the first truck load from Welch Elementary, Churchville Elementary and Richboro Elementary.

To follow Laura's daily activities during her stay please visit,

http://missvickyschildrenseducation.blogspot.com/.

A fundraiser to enjoy South African wines and cheeses will be held locally later this summer.

If you’d like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Laura, please email Debra at missvickyseducationfund@gmail.com.

Please help

I want to thank everyone for their tremendous response in providing me with financial donations and expertise to support Miss Vicky’s Children’s Education Fund. Unfortunately, we have not yet met our financial requirement to transport the vast amount of donated text books to where they are needed most – the village schools in South Africa.

Council Rock School District has several thousand outdated language arts textbooks scheduled to be sent to the dumpster on May 1^st. These textbooks, while outdated for current US curricula, are in excellent condition and are of great value to young students in Khayelitsha. Council Rock School District will donate these books to us but we must arrange for their immediate transport. Our 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization has already collected several hundreds of books prior to this donation from Council Rock School District.

How your help can make it happen: We are in the process of arranging with a freight forwarder to secure the required ocean freight container(s) at cost! Including trucking to and from the ports, as well as customs clearance, we are facing costs of approximately $8,500.

Other fundraising activities have already been conducted to raise monies for transport of the books such as school and community based fundraising events. But we can’t do it without your help!

Help us make a difference. With your donation, we will be able to assist many Khayelitsha families and individuals work toward a brighter future with an education – one that can only be made possible with your financial support through a modest donation. Many of us take textbooks for granted. The families and students in South Africa will benefit beyond their imaginations with your help.

Please send a special gift today of $25 or more to this non-profit education organization via PayPal at http://missvickyschildrenseducation.blogspot.com/

Or, send a check to: Miss Vicky’s Children’s Education Fund c/o 411 Foxcroft Drive, Ivyland, PA 18974

$8,500 estimated shipping cost / $25 donation = 350 generous donors (rounded)

Very generous donors like you can guarantee achievement of this shipping goal so we can stock the schools and the beginnings of a school library in a regions where these text books are most needed!

Miss Vicky’s Children’s Education Fund is fueled by the desire to educate youth and adults in Khayelitsha’s Township “C”, in order to empower them to achieve beyond the limitations of their socioeconomic status. We are committed to serving the needs of these students so they can better themselves and become assets to their community.

This summer Miss Vicky’s will be hosting a South African Wine/Cheese event along with a 5K race. Details to follow . . .

School has lost government funding

conversion factor =
R195,000 = $24,400
R8000 = $993.92

Dear Debra

Its been too long since we last communicated,things are
fine in SA Schools have just started again on monady for educators and yesterday
for learners. we are looking forward to a prosperous year.

I am aware that you are working in a process of raising
funds for our school library and we are waiting for the day the library will be
built.
The reason i am sending you this email is because we
are finding ourselves in a disastrous situation financial. Our school is non fee
government school meaning that the parents are not paying for the education of
their children. The government is giving us R195 000,00 per year to run the
school. In the past that money was supplemented by the donations we were
receiving from the private book suppliers who were giving us 10 % of the amount
of books we bought from them and we could run the school and pay our debts.
Since last year the book suppliers were withdrawn and the government is
supplying the books by itself as a result we are not getting the 10% that was
assissting us financially. That has crippled us seriously. We are unable to pay
all our debts.
For this month and next two months up to March we will
be unable to pay our two Grade R educators which are employed by the sgb. Each
one of them is getting R 8000,00 meaing therefore we are falling short of
R48000,00. We are asking if your institution can to donate the sum up to that
amount to help those educators which we do not want to loose.

It will be appreciated if that can happen starting from
this month. We know that we are diverting from our project but i have tried many
institutions in SA in vain.

Thanking you in advance for your support

Regards

Mr Mnconywa

SA ranked 45 out of 60 in talent survey

SA's ability to attract and retain talent is being hindered by shortfalls in education, according to the findings of a new global talent index.

The new study, released on Monday by research group Heidrick & Struggles in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit, said that a lack of emphasis on education in SA was one of the biggest threats to the country's ability to fulfill its potential to attract and retain talent within its workforce.

Overall, SA was ranked 45 out of the 60 countries that were analysed in the 2011 Global Talent Index. Its ranking showed a marginal improvement on its previous ranking in the first index, published in 2007, when it was placed 24 out of 30.

"However, it must be noted that other countries are expected to reduce the gap between themselves and the US, which leads the world for talent and is projected to remain at the top spot in 2015, mainly through increased spending on education, as well as through more open labour laws," Heidrick & Struggles said.

The survey found that talent across the globe was outstripping supply and that countries were not moving fast enough to prepare workers for the needs of tomorrow's economy.

The index analysed and compared the countries according to seven indicators: demographics, the quality of compulsory education, the quality of university education, the quality of the labour force, the degree to which the work environment nurtures talent, the mobility and relative openness of the labour market and the countries' proclivity to attract talent. Each of these indicators consisted of several components or sub-categories for which each country was awarded points and ranked in relation to the rest of the countries.

The most dramatic improvement SA was expected to make was in its proclivity for attracting talent. Currently ranked at number 41, the country was expected to move into the 30th position by 2015.

This is a relative yet significant improvement on the country's results in the previous Global Talent Index - in 2007, SA was placed last in this category, out of the 30 countries studied.

To ascertain what would make people choose to work in each country, the researchers examined levels of personal disposable income and employment growth there. Both of these figures are expected to improve - SA was found to have the 17th fastest-growing workforce and was projected to move into 12th place by 2015, Heidrick & Struggles said.

The number one country in terms of its proclivity for attracting talent was Singapore, followed by Hong Kong, then the US.

Similarly, SA was found to have a work environment that was relatively effective in nurturing talent.

The survey showed that SA did not display a great degree of openness of its labour market, being ranked 45 out of the 60 countries. "To improve this, more foreign nationals would need to be hired and openness of trade would need to be improved.

"Additionally, while SA was found to be doing an increasingly good job of attracting foreign direct investment when the previous Global Talent Index was released, this situation appears to be in reverse and urgently needs to be reassessed," Heidrick & Struggles said.

Poor performance on the educational front was, however, the biggest thorn in the country's side. Insufficient enrollment and spending on tertiary education, as well as a shortage of internationally recognised universities, put SA in 48th position in terms of the quality of university education, and would see it drop down to 50th place by 2015.

"The prognosis for compulsory schooling is not good, either. Although enrollment in secondary schooling is increasing, children are not completing their schooling, spending on education is insufficient, pupil to teacher ratios are increasing and the problem of adult illiteracy continues to escalate," the research group said.

This left SA with a ranking of 43 in terms of the quality of its compulsory schooling, which would drop to 49th position by 2015.

With the quality of its labour force ranking it in position 38, SA was just ahead of Sri Lanka and Mexico. This factor was measured according to the number of employees engaged in research and development, the quality, language skills and technical skills of the workforce and the number of local managers, and SA seems set to remain in this position.