Chase Collegiate School Raises Funds

For AIDS Orphans In Africa

WATERBURY — On Thursday, May 11, Lower School students from Chase Collegiate School held a snack sale, raising $600 for Kondwa Centre in Lusaka, Zambia. Kondwa Centre is a school that educates AIDS orphans ages 3 to 8. Over the past two years, Chase students and families have raised more than $11,130 for Kondwa through donations and service projects. Proceeds from the snack sale will help purchase land for a new building for the school, which will allow older children to continue their education.

Virginia Clarke, a 22-year veteran kindergarten teacher at Chase Collegiate School, is the director of Friends Of Zambian Orphans (FOZO). Mrs Clarke founded FOZO in 2003 with her son, Dr Kevin Clarke, a pediatrician, to help support some of the more than 600,000 children in Zambia orphaned due to the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS.

FOZO is supported by a coalition of students and families at Chase Collegiate School. FOZO recently achieved official nonprofit status. Fifth grade teachers Linda Piccuillo of Newtown, FOZO’s secretary, and Regina Campbell of Waterbury, treasurer, and Cynthia Turner of Roxbury, parent of two lower school students, are members of FOZO’s Board of Trustees.

To date, Chase Collegiate’s fundraisers have purchased a new bathroom facility, a water containment and purification system and school supplies for orphans at Kondwa. The next phase of the school’s development involves purchasing land to start a horticulture program so that Zambian children can learn to cultivate food. Initial approval has been received for the purchase, and a deposit has been placed on the land.

For more information, contact Aline Rossiter at 203-236-9588 or visit the school’s website, ChaseCollegiate.org.