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

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.

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.

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

Music Supporting Charity in Africa

Posted on July 13, 2010 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

Africans are born with rhythm, so it is not surprising to come across many talented people during my trips to Mukuni; song and dance play an influential role in their culture. The forthcoming Lwiindi Ceremony, the ‘Cutlural Feast of the Spray Ceremony of the Victoria Falls’ scheduled for the 2nd August. This is a great spectacle of colour showing many aspects of tribal life, most especially through music. Today marks the 25th anniversary of the Live Aid, the famous Fundraising Concert for the famine in Ethiopia. I recently watched a biography of Bob Geldof and a recording of Live Aid, this shows the power and lure of music from every corner of the world. I have always been inspired by the incredible fete acheived by the organisers of this event and believe that music is a great media for fundraising.

Charity Music: Crystal Shaun & TY2 & Leya Tribal Dancing at Mukuni Village

This year we launched a charity single, called ‘Change for the Better’ on World Malaria Day to increase global awareness and raise funds for Malaria Prevention and the fight against Africa malaria. Although Zambia is not a famine area, there is hunger, poverty and sickness and the continual battle against malaria and HIV and AIDS Prevention, lack of safe, clean water and medical supplies. The Butterfly Tree has concentrated its work in the Mukuni Chiefdom to improve all aspects of life and not just walk away after putting up a new classroom. It is vital to improve the water and health facilities along with advancing the edcuation to really make a difference, after which Mukuni Village can attempt to be more sustainable.

HIV/AIDS in Zambia under fives’s feeding program outreach clinics in Mukuni

A student from North Carolina recently visited our projects on behalf of GlobalGving US. Troy Smith has written a wonderful report highlighting our work and the difference we are making to the lives of the orphans and our programs for HIV/AIDS in Zambia. A volunteer from the UK, Brendan Poynton, recently spent some time at Mukuni, Ngandu and Kamwi Schools holding music workshops for the pupils. He was so inspired by our work and the response from the children that he has offered to raise funds to build a Music Centre at Mukuni. With this in place we can hold events in Zambia and who knows we may even be able to host our own mini ‘Live Aid’ concert.

Fundraising for Mukuni

Posted on May 7, 2010 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

One of the great things about running a charity to help orphans is the enormous amount of interest and support it attracts. Now that we have been operating for over four year and have been able to achieve a great deal, we are getting a considerable amount of offers from individuals, schools and churches who genuinely want to help us make a difference. Besides collecting donations, they are doing their own fundraising activities to assit our programs in communities such as Mukuni.

On the 2nd May Mike Kaye and Nigel Birch set off at 06.00, from London’s Trafalgar Square, to cycle 165 miles to Nottingham. Much of their journey was cycling in torrential rain, facing north-easterly winds with temperatures barely reaching eight degrees. An arduous challenge to complete in one day. At 22.10 they finally arrived at Escucha in Nottingham to down a few well deserved pints! Mike is now on his way to Zambia with Lucy Machin to volunteer at Mukuni Village, the funds raised will be used for sport and educational materials. Later this month Jake Wilson-Gunn and Andrew Mottram will be cycling from Lands End to John O’ Groats. Others have done sponsored walks, swims and the iron-man challenge. Several schools have raised funds to sponsor an orphan and supplied bicyles for children in outreach villages to travel to Mukuni schools. Several churches have donated their collections to buy educational materials as well as supporting the orphan sponsorship program.

Fundraising for Mukuni: Mike & Nige cycled 165 miles from London to Nottingham

The local Rotary and Inner Wheel Clubs have also been a great support, particulary building hokmes for the vulnerable. This month Basement Entertainment and the UK Zambian community held a fundraising event in London, where our charity song ‘Change for the Better’ was launched to increase global awareness and raise funds for our malaria program. One new fundrasing initiative we have started is to collect empty ink cartridges and old mobile phones for recycling. Empty Cartridges will provide a pre-paid envelope with The Butterfly Tree logo for you to send to them for recycling; in return they will donate to the charity for every item received. Any amount, however small or whichever way you chose to help, can improve the health and education of the those less fortunate in Zambia.

Donated bicycles for long distance travel New home for widow with orphans

If anyone is interested in doing a challenge or an event, it need not be as strenous as a marathon or a cycle ride, a sponsored walk or simply making cakes as Lucy did and raised almost £100 by selling them to her office colleagues! We can provide you with advertising material, sponsorship forms and suggest ideas. The Butterfly Tree team is very grateful to all those generous people who have already participated and especially to the ones who are offering on going support.

Schools linked to Mukuni

Posted on July 10, 2009 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

When a young girl called Shaila wrote to me this week and told me that she wanted to donate £30 of her birthday money to The Butterfly Tree I was really touched by this thoughtful gesture. The charity receives numerous donations from individuals, tourists, corporate and grants some of them substantial, though none could have been more sincere than the gift from Shaila.

Most African children like others from developing countries do not receive birthday or Christmas gifts and in the orphanges a number of them don’t even have a date of birth, their ages have to be estimated. It is important to make our children understand that not every child is as priviliged as they are and to teach them to realise that for some safe, clean water and food are gifts, commodities that we all take for granted.

We now have several schools supporting The Butterfly Tree. Seeing how responsive these pupils are after talking to them and showing photos of the Mukuni makes me realise that every school should support a charity of some kind; linking with a school in a remote village of Zambia is both educational and rewarding. It takes little effort: a non-uniform day could raise money to sponsor an orphan or provide much needed educational supplies. Having a cake stall as did our village school which brought in £210 for an orphan and school materials. One school is currently raising funds for bicycles, while another is providing special needs equipment for Mukuni Basic School.

Whether you are a pupil, teacher or a parent try to get your school involved and join the list of schools already supporting The Buttlerfly: Wolverton Primary, Marston Green Primary, St. Alban’s Primary, Fountaindale Specialist SEN, Arden School. If your school would like to sponsor an orphan you can give a child an education and make a difference to someone’s life.

Mukuni Fund Raising

Posted on February 13, 2009 by Jane Kaye-Bailey

The Butterfly Tree has partnered with Buy One Give Twice, the UK’s premier charity auction site. If you have any unwanted Christmas presents, having an annual Spring clean or want to donate event tickets or holiday accomodation to raise money for The Butterfly Tree contact us and we will sell them through this secure charity auction site.

When I go out to Zambia and visit Mukuni Village and see how little the people have I feel ashamed when I think about all the material things that I have in my home. I am ‘decluttering’, which is good for the mind and soul and The Butterfly Tree and local charity shops are benefitting. Now you can sell your unwanted items and raise money for The Butterfly Tree. All you have to do is donate the item to the charity, it will then be auctioned and the proceeds with help our projects at Mukuni.

Just a small amount could provide stationary or education for one of the many orphans. As little as £10 can buy 40 tablets of soap. Schools in Zambia receive very little government funding and rely on donations from charities and visitors. We provide edcuational material and sports equipment as well as classrooms, teacher’s houses and toilets. £400 can build a community house for a widow or an elderly person living in appalling conditions or £650 can provide a pit-latrine toilet for a school. £95 can sponsor a childs education for an entire year.

Pit-latrine toilets at Mukuni Village

Lack of hygiene is one of the major problems and infant diarrhoea is common in these remote villages. Having no access to clean, safe water and soap creates many health issues. We are raising funds for the Mukuni Cheifdom to provide more bore holes, improve the sanitation and provide basic hygiene education using workshops and edcuational DVDs.