February, 2016 | The Butterfly Tree Charity

For many of us the constant rainy days this winter have become tiresome. The ground is saturated, which restricts us being able to play sport, do the gardening or hang out the washing. Imagine what it would be like if you had no fresh water to drink, no rain to irrigate the crops and no streams to wash your clothes in.

Dry River – Southern Province

While some areas of the globe are experiencing excessive rain and flooding caused by El Niño, many countries in Eastern and Southern Africa are suffering from drought. Zambia is no exception. Though substantial rain has helped parts of the nation, areas between Zimba to Livingstone, in Southern Province, have been hit for the second consecutive year. The Chiefdoms where we work are in this region.

Dry Stream – Mukuni Chiefdom

Reports are coming in of dry streams, failed crops and food shortages. Children are drinking from shallow wells. At River View School, which is close to the Zambezi River, water is generally pumped from the river using an electric pump, but when there is no electricity, water has to be drawn from the river. Last week, a fourteen year old boy had a narrow escape. As he was drawing the water a friend noticed a crocodile heading towards him and thankfully alerted the boy in time!

Failed Maize Crop

Over one third of Zambia’s 15.5 million population do no have access to safe clean drinking water and 25% of all schools to not have a safe supply of water.

Shallow Wells used in Schools

We have successfully installed a number of bore holes and Indian hand pumps in schools, clinics and rural communities. This facility not only provides safe drinking water, but also a source of irrigation for school gardens to create sustainable feeding programmes. As maize is rain dependent we have introduced sorghum seeds for schools, the crop requires less water, along with vegetable seeds.

Safe Drinking Water for Sinsimuku Pupils

Our priority over the next few months will be to source funds to provide more remote schools and clinics with bore holes. If you are interested in supporting our water projects please contact jane@thebutterflytree.org.uk or DONATE on line using our secure facilitator.

It is almost ten years since The Butterfly Tree started its orphan sponsorship programme in Zambia, to date around 1,000 individual orphans have received a sound basic education. Many pupils have since completed high school, others are attending college, while a number have sought employment.

Peter Liyungu – first sponsored orphan in final year at teachers training college

In the early days it was fairly simple to get to know each individual orphan and give regular feedback to the sponsors, especially as they were all attending Mukuni Basic School. The programme has grown considerably and we now offer sponsorship to orphans in other schools, including N’gandu, Kamwi, N’dele and Mahalulu.

Sponsored orphans – Mukuni Schools

Within a short time we realised that it is not only education that the orphans in these remote villages need. Besides going to school they must have safe water to drink, access to better healthcare, improved housing conditions, and sanitation facilities. Consequently we created a holistic approach to the welfare of these vulnerable children by adding bore holes and latrines in schools, building clinics and providing new methods for malaria prevention, as well as workshops for HIV prevention.

Safe drinking water for pupils at Siachukubi Community School

As a result of this approach we have been able to reach out to several thousand children in the Mukuni, Musokotwane, Sekute and Nyawa Chiefdoms. We have built entire new schools in areas where children had never attended school. Virtually every project we do is for the benefit of the orphans.

Muchambile Community School funded by a private donor

In September 2012 when HRH The Princess Royal visited our projects at Mukuni Village, at the end of her tour she said ‘working with orphans is not easy, but you seem to have got it right.’

2012 – HRH Princess Royal Visit to The Butterfly Tree projects

Now as we approach our second decade our aim is to expand into other Chiefdoms and communities that receive little help. We will continue with the orphan sponsorship programme, but due to the enormous amount of time it takes to administer the programme it is hoped that our sponsors will understand that it is not always possible to give regular updates on each individual child.

Florence from N’gandu School sponsored by the charity

We are delighted to tell you that we have been able to sustain our ability to run the charity both in the UK and Zambia entirely by volunteers, with the addition of Frank Maiolo who helps with our orphan support programme in the USA. Most of them have been with us since 2006, and thanks to their dedication and commitment these orphans have a much better chance in life.

Monthly Archives: February 2016

Water Crisis

Orphan Sponsorship