The Atwater at Nocatee will host Jacqueline Fogg at the Getting to Know You forum at 11 a.m. April 30. Residents, guests and the general public are invited. For any further information, call 904-320-1056.
Fogg has had a rich and interesting life and organizers are delighted that she will share a snapshot of that.
She was born in the Lake District, England, near Scotland and due to her father’s employment with World Bank contracts, she grew up all over the world.
After graduating college she taught at a Montessori School in Manhattan, which led her to creating a video called “Montessori in your Home,” which went on to win awards as well as being featured in the New York Times.
This was just the beginning of her illustrious career both in front of and behind the camera.
In 1986, Fogg went to visit her mother in Zambia. While there, her mother witnessed the tiny little school they had. Recognizing that there was enough room for growth in this small schoolhouse, her mother decided to start a school in the village called Kafue.
She single handedly raised all the money herself and started a school. It opened with 40 students.
Subsequently, Fogg’s father finished his contract and moved on to his next venture. Fogg’s mother had to leave Zambia before seeing her school completed.
Jacqueline Fogg then went back to the United States for a while. In 1987, at the height of Apartheid, she went to South Africa on vacation for two weeks. She left with two suitcases and a job waiting for her when she returned. Instead, she stayed for 25 years.
While in South Africa, Fogg:
She has written six feature films and two animation movies, which are yet to be produced but under contract.
The Department of State asked her to help in Africa working directly under the supervision of Colin Powell.
She came back to Washington, D.C., for a while but later returned to Lusaka, Zambia, and worked at the embassy there for a short time. While there, she jumped into a taxi and took a ride to see if her mother’s school was still operating. To her pleasure, the school was not only still in operation, but it was flourishing. The number of students had grown from the original 40 to 400 students.
Fogg flew home to the States excited to tell her mother all the wonders at the school that she had seen. Josephine Fogg was determined to once again raise funds to expand the school. With the help of family and friends she did just that. They raised the funds and built an extra room onto the existing schoolhouse to accommodate the older students.
Jacqueline Fogg and her mother Josephine were invited back to Kafue where a special ceremony was planned to honor the latter. The school was officially named The Josephine Fogg School.
Now the school maintains a roster of 600 students and is self-sustaining, which in itself is a major accomplishment in Africa. The Josephine Fogg School is proud of all their students and takes great joy knowing some have gone on to universities; three in the States and one in England.
When Josephine Fogg was building the school, an old man from the village came slowly up to her and said, “The children who go to this school will cross rivers.” And they have.
Jacqueline Fogg is now living and thriving in Ponte Vedra, at The Atwater at Nocatee, and has started her own woman-owned small business specializing in government contracting and education.
The name of her company is Cumbria Contracting. Learn more at Cumbriacontracting.com.
The presentation is open to the public, and Fogg encouraged people from the community to attend. She plans to do a Q&A after the presentation.
