Volunteers and Fundraisers

Posted on October 12, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

This past month has seen a boost in funds for The Butterfly Tree thanks to the many volunteers and fundraisers helping our cause. On September 15th Mike Kaye, Nigel Birch, Jake Wilson-Gunn and James Blackburn arrived at Brands Hatch Circuit to participate in CyclothonUK. The charity won a free place for a team of four. We are very grateful to the organisers, the participants and our main sponsors, CRB Solutions, Academy Leasing, Geddess Associates and Serenity Finance for making this happen.

Fundraising for The Butterfly Tree Charity

Fundraisers: Nigel, Mike, Jake and James at the end of a 12 hour challenge

The challenge started at 7.30am and finished twelve hours later at 7.30pm. The undulating hills proved to be too much for some, especially the event organisor, Victor Umbugu, a former England rugby prop. Despite the gruelling task our amazing team persevered and earned a well-deserved sixth place out of thirty teams. Their efforts have raised over £2200 for our projects in Zambia.

Jake tackles the undulating hills at CyclothonUK

Mike at the start of his twenty laps

During my recent trip to Zambia I was fortunate to be working with several dedicated volunteers. Mutsa Marau, who is working with pupils in the Mukuni Chiefdom, has initiated a peer education project in HIV/AIDS prevention. Petteri Allpi, a former UCL student from Finland, set himself tasks to improve the Maths and English standards in the schools and documenting The Butterfly Tree projects. A third volunteering trip to Mukuni Village for Margaret Bax and Casey Short, sees the progression of the goat’s milk project to support the under-fives’ feeding programme.

HIV AIDS Prevention with Mutsa

Volunteers in Mukuni Village: Casey, Presley, Petteri, Margaret, James and Jacob

Hannah Lainton and Claire Richardson spent a month teaching business skills to women’s groups in Mukuni and also taking lessons for children at the school. James Ashley raised funds to donate and assist in the construction of a house for a widow with orphans in addition to working with young children. The mutual benefit of having volunteers has a lasting impact on the community and creates a life-changing experience for the partaker. If you are interested in volunteering in Zambia or fundraising for our projects please contact us.

Charity 2010-2011 Annual Report

Posted on September 20, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

“Five years on and The Butterfly Tree is still going strong. A significant amount of progress has made a lasting change to the Mukuni Chiefdom with the advancement of our health and education projects. Successful fundraising has enabled the charity to build additional classrooms, teachers’ and clinic houses, bore holes and latrines. Each school now has a bore hole, providing safe clean drinking water an opportunity to grow vegetables, which provides a sustainable feeding program.

All these schools have much improved educational facilities. These constructions have been erected throughout the Chiefdom to improve the facilities and well being of some 20,000 vulnerable people. Ten of the twelve schools have received our support, several have been upgraded and in addition to this we have expanded the three clinics.”

Follow link for the full report – Charity Annual Report 2010-2011

Education for Zambia

Posted on September 14, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

On Saturday I will be flying out to Zambia for what I am hoping will be a very rewarding trip. The three schools that we are currently building in the villages of Matengu and Silelo in the Musokatwane Chiefdom and Malima in the Mukuni Chiefdom should be completed by the end of October. A teachers’ house at Mukuni is also under construction as well as five community houses for widows and orphans. We have a number of volunteers who are helping to improve the Maths and English standards at Mukuni Basic School, others are assisting with the HIV and AIDS prevention projects and teaching business skills to groups of women. We are very grateful to all of them for giving up their time to volunteer for The Butterfly Tree.

Education for Zambia – New school for pupils at Matengu to open shortly

In addition to our on going sponsors the Barrington Educational Initiative, a Swiss based private charitable endeavour, has offered to support our work. We have also recently partnered with and Travelers Gift Vacations, a tour operator that provides luxury and purpose travel. A philanthropic traveler has a chance to get involved with charitable work in one of the developing countries they are visiting. The longer I work with the charity the more I realise there is a great need for collaboration amongst small charities operating in Zambia. If we endeavour to work with other organisations together we can make a bigger impact, create transparency and help to alleviate corruption. One of our new partners is Global Partners for Health, a US based charity also working in Zambia, who aim to provide vital medical supplies for our clinics.

Health education – young women from Kamwi Village gives birth to seventh child

Tomorrow our own cycling team, The Flying Butts, will be competing in a cycle challenge at Brands Hatch. The CyclothonUK event has some thirty teams involved in the challenge to raise funds for charities. One of our volunteers, Oscar Miyanda of Basement Entertainment, is providing the music to spur the teams on. So far we have raised almost £2000 all of which will go towards our orphan programmes in Zambia. We wish Mike Kaye, Nigel Birch, Jake Wilson-Gunn and James Blackburn every success and thank them for giving up their valuable time to take part. If you would like to sponsor the team this can be done either on our website or through Just Giving, no deductions will be made.

Cyclothon UK

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

With less than two weeks to go our charity team ‘The Flying Butts’ are busy training for Cyclothon UK, being held at Brands Hatch on 15th September. Mike Kaye, Nigel Birch, Jake Wilson-Gunn and James Blackburn will be competing against thirty teams comprising of international rugby players and the British para-cycling who are to compete in the 2012 Olympics. The event starts at 7am, is open to the public and should reach fever pitch late afternoon, ending at 7pm. The team are generously giving up their time to raise funds for The Butterfly Tree health and education projects in Mukuni and beyond.

Cyclothon UK – raising vital funds for these Zambian children

These fundraising events help to boost vital funds to support our work in Zambia. All our work revolves around the many orphans who have lost their parents as a result of HIV/AIDS. 710,000 children are left orphaned and desperately need our help to provide them with an education and improved health and water facilities. Our orphan sponsorship programme gives these children the opportunity to complete their education giving them better future prospects. To date we have sponsored over 400 individual orphans and helped several thousand more at the many schools we support in the Mukuni Chiefdom of Zambia.

Evelyn Makaya in orphan sponsorship programme Zambia

Evelyn Makaya , Mukuni High School on our orphan sponsorship programme

We are very grateful to our main sponsors: CRB Solutions, Geddes Associates, Adacemy Leasing and Serenity Finance. If you would like to sponsor The Butterfly Tree team this can be done by donating through Just Giving or on our secure charity donation page. No fees or administration costs will be deducted, all funds raised will go directly into our grassroots projects. If you would prefer to sponsor an orphan please use this link and complete the form. Your support can make a lasting change to a child’s life.

August 2011 Newsletter

Posted on August 22, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

We have just received our figures for the 2010-2011 accounts and I am delighted to say that we have reiased a remarkable £270,000 (US$445,000. This is our best year to date. All the funds have gone directly into our grassroots projects in Zambia. Our annual report and accounts will shortly be circulated and available on the Charity Commission website.

Supplies donated to Machenje pre-school in Zambia

New football to replace ‘bag & string’

Despite a quiet start to the new financial year we have a had a great boost to the funds during July and August from both individuals and corporate who have visited Mukuni Village. During their cultural tour they took the opportunity to visit The Butterfly Tree projects. Donations of blankets, mosquito nets, sports equipment, stationery and clothing have helped a number of vulnerable people in addition the clinic and the school received money. Two companies Brady Italia and Canon Australia have generously offered on going support. Individual donations came from the UK, the US, Europe and Australia some of them in the form of orphan sponosrship.

The three schools we are currently building, two in the Musokotwane Chiefdom and one in Mukuni are well under way and should be completed by the end of the year. This has been made possible thanks to grant aid form the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission. We are now reaching out to fifteen schools in the Kazungula District. In addition we are supporting three clinics and many villages.

Most of our existing donors have liberally continued sponsoring orphans. The first orphans to be on our prgram have now completed grade twelve and our aim is to source funds for futher education. The Mukuni Village Fund in South Australia is now sponosring fifty orphans through our charity. However many more sponsors are needed. Due to the gloabl recession and lack of employment fra too many children, even those with parents, are failing to pay their school and exan fees.

Peter sponsored orphan completes school

HIV/AIDS education for Mukuni pupils

This month I was invited to Zurich to receive a substantial donation from ENRC Marketing AG. Unknown to us their employees held a fundraising campaign and the benficiary was to be an NGO working in one of the many countries where they operate. The Butterfly Tree was selected for haivng the best proven records of transparency and for the fact that we are all volunteers both in the UK and Zambia. All the staff gave generously with matched funding provided by ENRC’s Head Office in London. The funds rasied totalled an amazing $27,000 and will be used to build a teacher’s house at Mukuni Village, five community house for orphans and to support our HIV/AIDS prevention for children, which will include peer education, workshops and feeding programs.

ENRC Marketing’s donation

Saga, who’s charitable trust, is one of our major donors, are challenging their employees to raise funds to build a bore hole and a shelter for boarders at Mukuni. We have constructed an additional building at our maternity clinic, funded by The Besom, this will provide accommodation for women prior to labour who live a long distance from the clinic, ensuring a safer delivery of their babies. Thanks to Just a Drop four new latrines have been added to the Mukuni schools and a bore hole at Libala Basic School.

Women’s shelter – Mukuni Village

Next month, after winning a team place we are to participate in Cyclothon UK, a cycle challenge initiated by Victor Umbugo of VU Ltd and former England rugby prop. The event is to be held at Brands Hatch on the 15th September from 7am. Our team ‘The Flying Butts’ needs your support. Donations would be greatly appreciated and can be sent to The Butterfly Tree, 3 Gannaway Court, Norton Lindsey, Warwick CV35 8JR or made using our secure Just Giving page. If you are in the area any time during the day from 4pm onwards, when the excitement reaches its peak, please go and support the team and see many of the International rugby players taking aprt. We are grateful to CRB Solutions, Academy Leasing and Geddes and Associates who are are three main sponsors.

This summer we have a number of volunteers who are working at Mukuni. Mutsa Marau is doing a peer education project to tackle the HIV/AIDS issues, Peterri Alpi from UCL is improving the maths and English standards and Hannah Lainton and Claire Richards will share their business skills with womens groups

Thank you to all the individual, corporate, schools, clubs, volunteers and philanthropers who have ginven so generously to support our grassroots projects, which have improved the lives of thousands of children and vulnerable communities in Zambia.

Children’s Health and Education

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

The Butterfly Tree is the beneficiary of a fundraising campaign initiated by Jim Cochrane, CEO of ENRC Marketing AG based in Zurich. When Jim suggested that one of his colleagues should grow a moustache to raise funds for charity, the flippant remark developed into a challenge to raise funds for an NGO working in one of the countries where ENRC operate. Unknown to The Butterfly Tree we were being strutinised along with hundreds of other charities that provide education, health and social care for disadvantaged children throughout Africa, Asia and South America.

The campaign had been organised by Marilena and Tatiana who worked tirelessly to coordinate the objective until they reached their target of 20,000 Swiss francs. Eventually three charities were selected and the employees had to vote on a winner. Amazingly The Butterfly Tree was chosen as the charity having the best records of proven transparency and for the fact that we are all volunteers both in the UK and Zambia. In just one month the employees at their Zurich office, helped with match funding from head office in London, raised a staggering $27,000 (over £16,000).

Funds for Children’s Health & Education: Jane with ENRC Marketing employees

I was invited to Zurich where I gave a presentation on our work in Zambia before receiving this generous cheque. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet all the participants and to see the collection of moustaches and beards. The perfect day ended with a summer party on board a boat which sailed across Lake Zurich. I felt very privileged to be with such an caring group of people and inspired after learning that The Butterfly Tree was their preferred charity.

Fundraising campaign for The Butterfly Tree

Fundraising campaign raise $27,000 for The Butterfly Tree

The funding will be used to build a teacher’s house at Mukuni Village, five community houses for orphans and the remainder will be used to boost our HIV/AIDS prevention projects for children, which will include peer education, worshops and feeding programmes.

Education & Sustainability

Posted on July 31, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

In the past five years The Butterfly Tree has concentrated on advancing the water, food, health and education facilities and has made a difference to the lives of thousands of people in the Mukuni Chiefdom and beyond. Now we are to take this a step further thanks to the help of international volunteers who will be working with the charity to initiate projects which will include peer educating, improvement in education methods and sustainability.

Mutsa Marau from London has spent the past year raising funds to visit Mukuni and introduce a peer education system at Mukuni Basic and High Schools. HIV/AIDS remains the major problem within the Mukuni community leaving almost fifty per cent of the children orphaned. One in six adults is HIV positive and the longevity is merely thirty six years of age. Mutsa is determined to make her HIV and AIDS Prevention project work; educating pupils between the ages of twelve and twenty about the dangers of HIV, holding workshops and teaching during her four month visit to the village.

Education improvements at Mukuni

Joining Mutsa will be Petteri Alppi from Finland who is a student at University College, London and a member of their Global Development Initiatives. Although the teaching standards in Zambia are good many pupils fail their exams due to a lack of materials and teaching staff. Petteri has compiled educational data to help improve English and Mathematics skills at the schools. He will also assist the charity by documenting and producing videos of our projects, volunteering and the Zambian cultural way of life.

For the third consecutive year Margaret Bax and Casey Short from Oregon will be returning to Mukuni to continue their work with sustainable projects. A successful chicken farming enterprise has given a number of women an opportunity to have an income-generating activity. Last year Margaret and Casey started a goat-rearing project to assist The Butterfly Tree’s under fives’ feeding program. One of our most successful projects to date this requires a large injection of funds and due to the high cost of formula only a limited number of infants can participate. The project provides formula, to replace breast milk in women who are HIV positive, to prevent the transmission of the HIV virus from mother to child. Since 2007 all infants partaking on this program have been tested free of HIV. The production of goat’s milk will provide a nutritional supplement for this feeding program.

Sustainability – under fives’ feediging program, Mukuni Village

Our aim is to make the Mukuni Chiefdom projects models for other areas of need.

Corporate Sponsorship

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

Over the last couple of months The Butterfly Tree has gained new donors through corporate sponsorship. The most recent is Brady Italia, which came about after a group visited Mukuni Village while on a business incentive trip to Victoria Falls. They donated blankets and educational material to the Mukuni Basic School. As a result of their humbling experience the company and its employees have kindly offered to donate a considerable amount of funds over the next two years in addition to sending shipment of clothing. Another generous offer has come from Canon Australia, again a group visited Mukuni and the team was so touched by the plight of the orphans that they are sending generous monthly shipments of stationery, sports equipment and funds toward one of The Butterfly Tree’s education programs.

Some of the comments made by their team include: ‘It was an amazing experience that changed our outlook on life’ – ‘We were touched by the importance the community placed on educating their youth’ – ‘It was a humbling expericence with a great team of people’.

Corporate Sponsorship: Cunninghams sponsors a feeding program – Mukuni Schools

You don’t have to visit Zambia to get involved. On September 15th The Butterfly Tree has been invited to participate in Cyclothon UK, a fundraising event which is taking place at Brands Hatch. The event, which is organised by Victor Umbugo , former England rugby prop, though his company VU Ltd (Sports & Hospitality Event Organisers) will gain a great deal of publicity. This gives us a further opportunity to raise funds and gain publicity for both ourselves and our sponsors. Hence we are seeking corporate sponsorship and asking for contributions. We would include your company nmae on all advertising material, our website updates and regular posts on Facebook and Twitter. A big thank you to CRB Solutions and Academy Leasing for their genrous sponsorship and getting us off the starting block!

Gardiff sponsors The Butterfly Tree Pre-school – Mukuni Village

We have recently been accepted to participate in the Big Give Christmas Challenge, whereby pledges made before October, though do not have to be paid unitl December can be doubled. This gives us a great opportuntiy to increase funding for the grassroots projects in Zambia. All our work is to benefit orphaned and vulnerable children, we are all volunteers therefore any funds raised through these intiatives will go directly to the cause. A big thank you to CRB Solutions and Academy Leasing for getting us off the starting block!

If you would like to learn more about how you can get involved or to become a corporate sponsor kindly contact jane@thbutterflytree.org.uk

Siamasimbi Basic School

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

Of all the villages we work in Siamasimbi is the most difficult to reach, especially during the rainy season. A distance of thirty-five miles from Mukuni this remote community has no clinic or village shop and is accessible only by 4×4. During my last visit to Zambia I was asked if I could give a lift to a women and her two children, shocked to learn that the previous day she had walked from Siamasimbi to Mukuni clinic and had planned to walk back the following day having no provisions to sustain them. There is no easy way to get to this village, rivers and streams have to be crossed resulting in children from some of the outreach villages unable to attend school during the rains.

Siamasimbi: This family had walked 21 miles to the clinic

This year the gentle and humble people of Siamasimbi saw the completion of a 1×3 classroom block, teachers’ house and latrines in addition to the bore hole we constructed in 2009. Our priority for next year will be to build a clinic in the area at Mahalula to accommodate neighbouring villages such as Siamasimbi. Although certain members of the community have been trained to practise traditional birth any complications could result in death. Several women each year die during labour attempting to walk to Mukuni Health Centre. The Butterfly Tree has recently completed a shelter kindly donated by The Besom, so that women who live a considerable distance from a clinic can go to Mukuni prior to the onset of labour. This is an addition to our Maternity Clinic, which opened in 2008, the facilities here provide a safe haven for women and infants. The Birthing Kit Foundation of Australia donates birthing kits to further improve the delivery procedure.

The Butterfly Tree Maternity Clinic – Mukuni Village

June through August is winter in Zambia. The days are gloriously sunny with temperatures reaching 22-25 degrees, however the nights are very cold and temperatures can drop to 4 degrees. Many children and elderly people sleep on the floor of their mud huts with no blankets and very few have warm clothing. Siamasimbi’s rocky terrain is at high altitude and can be exceedingly cold at night and many young children have to walk several miles to school in the early hours of the morning. Far too many children cannot afford shoes and walk bare-footed, often suffering from hunger along the way. Siamasimbi is just one of the many remote communities that desperately need further support to improve their circumstances.

Young girls at Siamasimbi walk bare-footed to school

You can help these vulnerable children by donating a uniform for £10 ($16) or shoes £15 ($24) or a blanket £15 ($24).

Help teachers in Zambia

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

Being a teacher is no easy task with all the beaurocracy, administration, numerous restrictions, ever-increasing violence in schools, it is no wonder that teachers need the long breaks to recuperate. Being a teacher in Zambia is challenging to say the least, though for entirely different reasons. If you have trained in Lusaka and lived in a house with electricity and plumbing, being sent to a remote rural village is a real shock to the system. When Zambian teachers qualify they have no choice as to where they will be located.

Malima Community School House

Schools such as Mukuni Basic and High rely upon trained government teachers and with a catchment in excess of twelve hundred pupils a considerable number are required. Sadly the government cannot provide adequate housing for these teachers and it is left to the school to meet the shortfall. Since building Mukuni High School, which opened in 2007, we have encountered all kinds of problems. Although The Butterfly Tree has build some houses many more are needed in both Mukuni and Ngandu Villages. Several teachers who are residing in Livingstone, some distance from Mukuni, do not attend classes every day due to the cost of transport. Others have requested a transfer.

The Butterfly Tree Teacher’s House for Siamasimbi Basic School

When we upgraded Ngandu School in 2009 the community built two mud hut constructions to help ease the situation. This was fine until an elephant sniffed out grain in one of the teacher’s kitchens and uplifted the roof, as aresult the teacher refused to return to her home. Ngandu, one of the oldest basic schools in Zambia, built back in the nineteen forties has over 500 pupils and feeds into Mukuni High School. Like Mukuni there are a considerable number of orphans and many of them are on our orphan sponsorship programme.

Teachers’s kitchen destroyed by an elephant – Ngandu Basic School

Today starts an appeal to invite anyone to donate just £5 to help these teachers who in turn can help the orphans who desperately need an education.