Mission Statement

The mission of Miss Vicky's Children's Education Fund is to finance the airfare from NYC to Cape Town, South Africa for at least one American teacher to donate his/her tutoring services each summer for several weeks to the children and mothers in Khayelitsha Township District "C" and to provide classroom instruction in the local public school to facilitate a learning environment focused on the improvement of overall literacy. Any additional funds raised will be used to establish a dedicated school library for "C" District. Eventually the hope is to provide each child with a school back pack filled with school supplies and their own reading book during the Holidays.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

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.