Charity Newsletter – July 2013

Posted on July 16, 2013 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

After a somewhat challenging year I am pleased to report on the completion of several projects that will benefit the orphans and rural communities. All of them are hugely beneficial, but none more so than those providing improved water and health facilities. Two new bore holes have been added at Kauwe and Muchambila schools in the Nyawe Chiefdom. A generous donation was received from Epsom College for the Kauwe bore hole as well as two latrines and a sluice for Mukuni Health Centre. Attraction Tickets Direct has donated a bore hole at Kaminbwa school and two double latrines at Kamwi school. These were initiated through Just a Drop, one of our partner organisations.

Charity Newsletter – new latrines for Mukuni Health Centre

The new health centre at Mahalulu in the Mukuni Chiefdom is now complete. The government had taken three years to construct a clinic building in this outreach area – in just over a year we have added a maternity clinic, a women’s shelter, three medical staff houses and latrines in addition to a bore hole. This was achieved through a significant grant from the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission. The facility will cater for people who previously had to walk over thirty kilometres to reach the nearest health centre. A further women’s shelter has been added to Mambova Clinic in the Sikute Chiefdom using generous funding from The Besom.

Three staff houses for Mahalulu Health Centre

Patients come to the clinics with numerous illnesses including HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, diarrhoeal diseases besides burns, snake bites and anti-natal and post natal clinics. In addition to skilled staff local people are trained to assist with childbirth and home care. The HIV and AIDS statistics in the area are the highest in the nation, with as many as 30% of the population being infected with the HIV virus. Livingstone is a border town and the capital of tourism. I was horrified to learn that one of my team had overheard some European female students saying that they only come to Africa for sex! Using funding from Brady Italia we are increasing the number of educational workshops on HIV and AIDS prevention and teenage pregnancies, but it appears the visitors also need to be educated!

Mother and infant receiving post-natal care at Mukuni Health Centre

A new Special Education unit at River View School has just been completed thanks to substantial funding from ENRC Marketing employees in Zurich. A further unit, funded by Saga, is currently being constructed at Katapazi Basic School. The BFSS 1×2 classroom block is in full use and a school shop will shortly be built with the assistance of students from Thomas Mills High School in Suffolk who have paid for the building materials. Some of these projects are two hundred kilometres from our base at Mukuni and up to sixty kilometres off road. All kind of problems arose, including poor access, vehicles getting stuck, dry bore holes and increase in fuel costs. Mupotola, Martin and Presley, three of The Butterfly Tree volunteers in Zambia, deserve most of the credit for their hard work, sheer determination and dedication in helping these vulnerable communities.

Mupotola driving through the bush to reach Sibbulo Village

As always it was great to meet up with the orphans. Many of them participated in the Kazungula District schools’ events, with Mukuni hosting it at the new Music Centre, donated by MUSIC EARTH RISE. Mukuni won the best choir, poetry and traditional dancing competitions and went on to compete in the Southern Province finals where they came runners up in all categories. I managed to catch up with the Kamwi twins who lost their mother in childbirth, both are happy and healthy and will be three years old in October. Sadly more children have been orphaned and need our support. Today I was delighted to hear that the Mukuni Village Fund in Australia has agreed to sponsor fifty orphans for a further year. Many thanks to all our donors, most especially to Midge Steuber, Thore Larsgard and Black and White Accounting – each of them are supporting ten orphans.

Jane with Vincent and Elvis, the Kamwi twins

If you would like to sponsor an orphan please contact jane@thebutterflytree.org.uk and for daily updates you can follow us on Facebook. Without your support none of these developments could have been achieved.

Jane Kaye-Bailey

Mukuni Schools

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

Mukuni Village is close to Livingstone, the tourist capital of Zambia and it is here where The Butterfly Tree is based. Since 2006 we have helped to advance the education in Mukuni, which has made it quite possibly the best and most certainly one of the biggest rural schools in Zambia. Much of this success has not only been due to our input, but also to Reverend Presley Mulenga, Head Teacher of Mukuni Basic School and the members of The Butterfly Tree in Zambia.

Mukuni Schools range from pre-school to high school

Rural schools face many challenges – lack of classrooms, insufficient teachers, shortage of materials and stationery and most especially lacks of funds to educate the many children left orphaned as a result of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. At Mukuni alone the charity has funded two 1×3 classroom blocks, five teachers’ houses, numerous latrines and a bore hole. In 2007 here we opened the first high school in the Kazungula District. A pre-school commenced in 2008, which is totally funded by the charity and attended by over 200 youngsters. A 1×2 classroom block has recently been completed thanks to a generous donation from the British and Foreign School Society, who has also provided several grants to help improve and advance the education at Mukuni.

Mukuni Basic School – new 1 x2 classroom block

Education is the key, but many of these children have to walk long distances to get to school – some leave at 4am, covering a distance of 15 kilometres to start lessons at 7am. Hunger is another major challenge, which can affect both the performance and attendance of school children. A daily feeding programme, kindly sponsored by Cunninghams, provides a nutritional meal for over 400 orphaned and vulnerable children, including ones from outreach villages. We have recently constructed two boarding shelters for older children who live far away, thanks to Saga who offer ongoing support to both our health and education programmes.

Daily feeding programme for over 400 vulnerable children

We have sponsored over 500 individual orphans and helped hundreds more with school and exam fees. In total there are over 1500 children attending the schools in Mukuni Village. This is just one of the twelve schools in the Mukuni Chiefdom that we have reached out to. Our work has now expanded to three further Chiefdoms – Musokotwane, Sikute and Nyawa. If you would like to help us with our education programmes we are currently seeking donations to purchase desks, at a cost of £45 each, for the new classroom block at Mukuni and as always we need more of people to sponsor an orphan.

Education For All

Posted on March 1, 2013 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

For the past seven years we have been working in a number of remote villages in the Mukuni Chiefdom. Now we are able to ‘spread our wings’ and reach out to vulnerable children in the Musokotwane and Sekute Chiefdoms, using many of the projects we have developed at Mukuni, as models. Our current projects include an additional 1×2 classroom block at Mukuni Basic School, generously funded by grant aid from The British and Foreign School Society. We have added a boarders’ shelter for girls to match the one built last year for boys, both courtesy of Saga’s Fundraising Challenge. This has made a huge difference to older pupils who were walking up to ten miles each way to be educated.

Education For All: Kamwi children receive a full education

As always our focus is on orphaned and vulnerable children. The Special Education unit at Mukuni Basic School is a great success – the first of its kind in a Zambian rural village. With ongoing support from Fountaindale School, many children with varying disabilities are now receiving a sound education. We aim to use this model to build additional units at other basic schools. In one area of the Sekute Chiefdom we have identified over thirty children who have never received an education due to having no facilities. Now thanks to a generous donation for ENRC Marketing we can add a special education unit to River View School.

The Princess Royal visited the Special Education in September 2012

No real advancement will be made unless we continue to tackle the HIV and AIDS pandemic, which has ravaged the entire nation. We will be funding additional workshops and voluntary testing but our main objective will be to target the school children. This weekend I will be returning to Zambia with Mutsa Marau, who initiated her own project in 2011, entitled ‘Catch Me I’m a Butterfly’. Mutsa teaches Peer Education for HIV Prevention in rural schools. She will be assisted by Tope Medupin; both are funding their own trip and have raised substantial funds for the project.

Mukuni Village HIV/AIDS support group funded by The Butterfly Tree

As always we are committed to providing education in all areas for these vulnerable children. If you would like to sponsor an orphan or fund one of our education programmes please contact jane@thebutterflytree.org.uk

2013 Support for Orphans

Posted on January 12, 2013 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

It is almost seven years since I first stepped foot in Mukuni Village and visited their basic school. It was there that I learnt about the plight of the orphans – almost 50% of the children had lost one or both parents. Since 2006 The Butterfly Tree has assisted thousands of orphaned and vulnerable children in the Mukuni Chiefdom and beyond and sponsored over 500 individual ones in education. With the start of the new school year in Zambia many children will have dropped out of rural schools due to the lack of funds. Education up to grade seven is free, though books and uniform still need to be purchased. After grade seven school fees have to be found – a hard task for families who are living below the poverty line.

Support for orphans – Jane Muumba, Mukuni Village

With so much poverty in rural villages education is crucial for these needy children. We have provided bore holes, improved health facilities and feeding programs but far too many orphans are struggling to meet the school fees. It cost just £110 ($180) per annum to sponsor an orphan or £10 per month for UK donors. Last year twenty orphans who had completed high school were able to go onto further education thanks to a grant from the BFSS. The majority of them took hotel management or food and beverage courses. Zambia is an up and coming tourist destination and new hotels are being built in the area. More jobs will become available for these students who are now trained in this industry. Two of the first orphans we sponsored have employment as security guards at Stanley Safari Lodge.

James and Victor were sponsored by The Butterfly Tree

James and Victor were sponsored through high school by The Butterfly Tree

For 2013 one challenge is for the schools we support to become more sustainable, another will be to initiate income-generating enterprises for orphans who are unable to seek employment. Our aim is to provide a mentoring scheme, which will involve local employers and businesses. If we can teach these educated orphans how to run a business not only to provide food for their families, but also to produce food for the tourist industry, they can overcome the poverty cycle. At the end of 2012 many of Zambia’s crops were destroyed be army worms. Mukuni and Kamwi villages lost most of their crops and will suffer a food shortage later this year. The Butterfly Tree has donated funds for 100 bags of seeds to help the worse effected families to replant during this peak growing season. All of these families will be supporting orphans; besides giving them an education we have to ensure that the orphans do not suffer from hunger.

Maize – the staple diet for Zambians

If you would like to sponsor an orphan or donate a bag of seeds please contact jane@thebutterflytree.org.uk

Newsletter April 2012

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

I have just returned from Zambia after three full weeks overseeing The Butterfly Tree projects and sourcing new ones. We are now covering areas some 100 kilometres from Livingstone, reaching out to villages in very remote areas where progress is being made in both health and education. However much more needs to be done in areas where poverty is extreme, parents are dying from AIDS related illnesses and children are hungry. Mukuni Village, due to its location, close to Livingstone and the border of Zimbabwe, suffers more than most. The HIV and AIDS statistics are incredibly high and more and more children are orphaned through this destructive disease, stressing how essential it is to continue with the orphan sponsorship program.

Old classroom at Silelo

New School at Matengu

I am pleased to report that it is not all ‘doom and gloom’ much progress is being made. The highlight of my trip was visiting the four new schools that we have constructed thanks to a hugely generous grant from the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission – three opened in January and one will open next term. All of these schools are complete with teachers’ houses and latrines with the addition of a bore hole at Malima. For the Mandandi community this is a real advancement, previously 46 children had never been to school and over 30 attended only once a week due to the long distance they had to walk to the nearest school. Each new school has received a substantial amount of stationary and equipment as a result of a grant from the British and Foreign School Society. We aim to make these schools sustainable by providing seeds to produce feeding programs as well as uniform making projects to create income generation.

Another highlight of the trip was when the new British High Commissioner, James Thornton, paid a visit to Mukuni Village. The Commission had selected The Butterfly Tree projects out of all the NGO’s operating in the Livingstone area.

New school at Silelo

New school at Mandandi

Further improvements include a shelter for boarders, funded by Saga Charitable Trust, which means the older pupils can remain in Mukuni during the week. The special education project is so successful that the Provincial Department of Education has got involved. Fountaindale School has once again provided a teacher exchange program. During their recent visit the UK teachers hosted workshops for the Province, using Mukuni Special Education as a model for this exercise. It is a joy to see local children with both mental and physical disabilities receiving a sound education. The orphan sponsorship has recently had a boost, many sponsors have either visited Mukuni or found us on the internet with over twenty more children being able to join the program. Virtually 100% of our sponsored orphans recently passed to go to the high school and twenty orphans, who completed grade 12, have been able to participate in vocational courses, part of the grant from the British and Foreign School Society. A further teacher’s house at Mukuni High School has been completed as a part of a considerable donation from ENRC Marketing.

Special Education Children

HIV and AIDS Prevention

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

Virtually all the work of The Butterfly Tree revolves around the HIV and AIDS orphans. At Mukuni Village almost 50% of the school children have lost one or more parent putting a huge burden on elderly grandparents and guardians and its the same story in every village. We believe that the only way to make the change is to target the younger generation and teach them all about HIV and AIDS prevention. Last year we were delighted to welcome Mutsa Marau to our team as a volunteer from London. Mutsa has a BA in Anthropoly and Socialogy, a MBA in International Business Practice and is a trained youth worker. She has written her own HIV and AIDS prevention program to train peer educators amongst school children, for the past four and a half months has worked with pupils at Mukuni.

HIV and AIDS Prevention Co-ordinator – Mutsa Murau

Now these dedicated young people are ready to ‘spread the word’ and are reaching out to other rural schools. They are educating their peers on the dangers of HIV, how to prevent it, the importance of voluntary testing and how to live with it if you are unfortunate to have been born with the virus. Other issues include teenage pregnancy and other sexually transmitted diseases and surrounding issues. With our support their aim is to reach out to all the schools we are involved with and beyond. Several of these educators are from The Butterfly Tree orphan sponsorship program and it is wonderful to see the progress they have made as individuals and a group.

Natasha – Peer Educator and orphan sponsored by The Butterfly Tree

Another volunteer, Brendan Poynton, is currently raising funds to build a Music Centre at Mukuni. This will give these vulnerable HIV and AIDS orphans an opportunity to hold concerts and social activities to raise funds and awareness to help the fight against this devastating disease. Through several fundraising events Brendan has almost reached his target and has

now organised a charity auction, through MUSIC EARTH RISE, to complete his task. There are some amazing lots including a guitar signed by Eric Clapton and a print signed by Ronnie Wood. If you would like to bid for any of the items please use the following click on Music Earth Rise Auction.

Charity at Christmas

Posted on December 16, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

This month most of us will be frantically buying presents and getting ready for the Christmas festivities. The shops are stacked with merchandice, delicious food and an abundance of drink and yet we still struggle to find that special present with a difference. One way to overcome this problem is to give a charitable gift and there are many ways this can be done. Each year hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of unwanted presents get tossed in the trash – money, time and effort all spent in vain.

Supper brewing for a grandmother with five orphans

If you want to find a worthwhile present, which not only offers pleasure to both the giver and the recipient, but can benefit a third party who is less fortunate, then you may like to consider one of the following options: Sponsoring an orphan in Zambia will provide an education for a child, donating a mosquito net could save a child’s life or build a house to accommodate an entire family. There are many other ways to help the orphans – donate a bicycle for a child who has to walk a long distance to school, buy a bag of maize for just £10 or donate a blanket for the cold winter nights for only £15.

Sponsor an orphan – Bright Siabenlengu, Mukuni Village

For most Zambians the highlight of their Christmas Day will be going to church, very few will have a celebratory meal or exchange presents. Two thirds of the population lives on less than one pound per day – their stress is not brought on from deciding what present to buy their family members, but whether they will have enough n’shima (ground maize), vegetables and ground nuts to feed the whole family. One young boy, just fifteen years of age, from Mukuni, recently tried to take his life because he could no longer cope with being constantly hungry. Please give this a thought when you are filling your trolley – do you really need that extra bottle of wine?

TheBigGive Christmas Challenge

Posted on December 4, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

This week The Butterfly Tree is participating in theBigGive Christmas Challenge, which gives us the opportunity to double any donations made from the 10 am on Monday 5th until Friday 9th December. Donations made to charities during this time will be matched by a combination of pledges donated by the charity’s major donors and the Big Give’s Philanthropist Fund. The donation must be made to The Butterfly Tree Orphan Support project listed on theBigGive website.

The project covers a variety of ways where we provide vital funds for the numerous children orphaned through the HIV and AIDS in Zambia. Most crucial is to supply a safe, clean drinking water. All schools need their own drinking water, which can also be used to provide water for gardens, enabling them to have sustainable feeding programs, essential for growth and stamina of young children. The Butterfly Tree provides HIV and AIDS and malaria prevention programs, treatment for sick children and much needed medical supplies. Our aim is to improve the health facilities for the orphans.

Orphan support for Chaton Sitali, Zambia

The Big Give Christmas Challenge – orphan support for Chaton Sitali

Education is the key to making the change. Through the orphan support program we have given hundreds of orphans an education. Many had dropped out of school due to lack of funds and to date we have sponsored over 400 individual orphans. In addition thousands more have been helped in fifteen schools throughout the Mukuni and Musokotwane Chiefdoms. We have build classrooms for mainstream and special education, teacher’s house, latrines and supplied vast amounts of stationery and equipment. We are very grateful to British and Foreign School Society for further grant aid to supply the four new schools we have built this year. Some of the funds will be used to provide further education for twenty orphaned and vulnerable children.

Five orphaned girls with their grandmother in N'gandu Village, Zambia

Five orphaned girls living with their grandmother in N’gandu Village

This is an amazing opportunity for us to reach out to many more orphans in Zambia. Please click on this link to donate – your support will give another orphan a chance in life.

7th December 2011 – we have now reached our target for the BigGive Christmas Challenge. Any further donations can be made through our website as the matched funding has reached its maximum. A huge thank you to everyone who participated, the following has been achieved:

Total of Pledges: £3000 which will be doubled to £6000

Total of Donations: £6000 has been doubled to £12,000

World AIDS Day 2011

Posted on December 1, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

Today marks World AIDS Day. Over 30 million people have died from AIDS related causes. An estimated 33 million are living with HIV. 2.9 million of these are children. Around 68% of from sub-Sahara Africa. Zambia has the seventh highest prevalence in the world. Today gives the opportunity to unite in the fight against HIV and to commemorate the people who have died from this devastating disease.

World AIDS Day – young Mukuni girl free of HIV

For the past five years The Butterfly Tree funds several HIV projects in the Mukuni Chiefdom of Zambia. These include orphan sponsorship, educational workshops and voluntary testing, treatment for the sick and an under-fives’ feeding programme to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to child. Formula is provided to replace breast milk in HIV positive mothers. Since its conception in 2007 every infant accepted on our program has been tested negative. Due to high costs of powdered milk we have initiated a goats’ milk project to supplement the programme, with the aim of making it sustainable.

Mutsa Marau with a Mukuni baby

This year we have intoduced a new project thanks to Mutsa Marau, a young volunteer from London, who at our own cost, has been working in Mukuni Village for the past three months. Her HIV prevention programme to train peer educators amongst the school pupils has been a huge success. Having spent her time training these young educators, assisted by Margaret Mulenga, they are now targeting outreach villages to ‘spread the word’. Today to mark the occassion 15 members, between the ages of 14 and 20 years, will be performing at the Chief ‘s Palace as part of Mukuni Villages’ activities to mark World AIDS Day. The groups performance will include poetry reading along with the presentation of art pieces explaining how every one of them can help the prevalance of HIV in their community get to zero.

Peer educators in HIV prevention including sponsored orphans

From the 5th – 9th December all donations to The Butterfly Tree have a chance to be doubled if made through our partners, the Big Give, during their Christmas Challenge week. To participate and help to give these young AIDS orphans a chance please donate to our programme through the Big Give website.

Support AIDS Orphans

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

The worst thing that can happen to any child is to lose a parent, but when a child loses both mother and father life becomes unbearble. To add to the heartbreak many of them have to drop out of school. There are 710,000 orphans in Zambia who need support. In some cases these children have to go into orphanages. For rural children a better alternative is available – if they can live with friends or relatives then at least they can have stability. The Butterfly Tree orphan sponsorship program has provided an education for over 400 vulnerable children and hundreds more have been assisted in many ways. This takes the pressure off their guardians and gives them an opportunity to stay at school with their friends. Education is the key and their only hope for a brighter future.

Support Aids orphans – young girl survives lightning strike

I recently met a young orphan who lives with her aunt. During a terrific thunder storm she was struck by lightning while standing inside her mud hut. The strike hit her back creating holes her uniform and she collapsed from shock, someone managed to get her to safety before the house went up in flames. Miraculously she had only superficial burns but they had lost all their meagre possessions and clothing. Life is tough being an orphan but when faced with these kinds of challenges it becomes insupportable. The Butterfly Tree builds community houses for orphans and their guardians, in many cases these guardians are elderly grandparents who have no source of income.

Sponsored orphans – Mukuni Village, Zambia

If you would like to sponsor an orphan or donate to towards this program it will help these children to overcome their loss. In December we are participating in The Big Give Christmas Challenge, which means that any donation received between the 5th – 9th December is eligible for matched funding. Donations must be made directly to the Big Give website and will be transferred to The Butterfly Tree charity account.