This past year, JBFC was able to build the first school on our Kitongo Campus thanks to the generous efforts of Jim Agnello and several other friends of JBFC. This school, opening January 18, 2010, will be an incredible addition to the JBFC campus and the Kitongo community. Not only will all of JBFC's girls be able to attend this academy and receive a high quality, English-medium education, but surrounding village children will be able to attend the school for a small fee (which will in turn help to make the school self-sustaining).
So many schools in the surrounding areas fail to live up to the need of the children, and it is well known that education of all children, especially the girls, is the only way in which extreme poverty will ever be eradicated. This is why JBFC and all of our supporters felt it incredibly important to build the school.
In 2008, Jim Agnello, who is currently a JBFC board member, was so moved by the work of JBFC and felt called to build this school in memory of his parents, Joseph and Mary Agnello. Joseph and Mary were both educators at heart, and raised all of their children to constantly pursue knowledge and education.
Mary and Joseph Agnello |
Here are a few words from one of our board members, Jim Agnello.
"In February of 2008 I was approached by Margaret Paul to take a look at the JBFC calendar being sold as a fundraiser. I immediately was drawn into the work going on at JBFC. Having run our school's trips to Nicaragua for habitat type work I hoped that a similar relationship between Bronxville HS and JBFC could be cultivated. |
That July I nervously boarded a plane for a 30 hour journey to Tanzania, via Dubai. Upon arriving in Mwanza, 12 of us and more luggage and supplies than I ever imagined could fit into a Toyota Land Cruiser, departed for the hour-long journey to the village of Kitango, on the shores of Lake Victoria.
We received the warmest welcome from the girls. They were like ants on sugar, overjoyed to see visitors, and immediately started helping us with our luggage and supplies. After a good night's sleep we spent over two weeks working with the girls on projects around the campus.
Returning to the States with a very heavy heart I started brainstorming about possibilities for the future. In January I attended a meeting at the UN with Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea and founder of Pennies for Peace, who has built over 50 schools in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan. It hit me like a ton of bricks, as my mom began to lose her long battle with cancer, this was it! I would help JBFC build its very own school for the girls. My father was a teacher and a school administrator and my mom spent many years running the religious education programs at our church in New York City. So this was the most fitting tribute I could think of - a school that would be called the 'Joseph and Mary Academy.'
 
This past summer Bronxville HS had five current students and two former students travel to Tanzania to work with the girls of JBFC. I had the very emotional opportunity to physically work brick by brick, building the very school that would bear my late parents' names." |
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