Category Archives: Health

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September Newsletter

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The Butterfly Tree has come a long way since 2006, gaining a sound reputation for transparency, attracting a global following, as well as continuing to be run by a team of dedicated and hard-working volunteers. After recently spending three weeks in Zambia there is so much to report, so many stories to tell and many people to thank.

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Visit to Nampuyani School

The start of the trip was spent hosting Geoff Crill, a Commissioner from our major donor organisation, the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission. After three days visiting rural schools at Kamwi, Ndele, Mukuni, Machenje, Matengu and Silelo, we ended with a visit to the newly opened clinic at Mahalulu, the Commissioner was impressed! He saw first-hand how far we have reached, the challenges we face, met our wonderful team of volunteers and personally funded the repair of the Silelo borehole. A new Community Work Project is to be funded by JOAC for the expansion of N’gandu School for 2015, when volunteers from Jersey will travel to Zambia to help with the construction of the project.

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JOAC Commissioner. Geoff Crill, addresses the community – Mahalulu Health Centre

Further development is taking place at Nampuyani, where a new borehole has been added, thanks to Just a Drop and funded by Attraction Tickets Direct who also paid for the addition of latrines and restoration of the school. Previously the only source of water was collected from bacteria infected shallow wells. The three hour drive to Nampuyani was tough, driving across river beds and a little too close for comfort to bush fires! However the joy of seeing children pumping safe clean water, was both humbling and overwhelming, and well worth the effort.

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New borehole for Nampuyani School

Muchimbale School, also in the Nyawa Chiefdom, underwent extensive development in 2013. Now thanks to further funding from a private donor a health post is to be added to reduce the distance that this community has to walk to seek medical attention. Moving on the Musokotwane Chiefdom Simango School, with some 750 pupils, has the addition of a Special Education unit, jointly funded by St. James Place Foundation and The Besom.

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Special Education class for Simango pupils

Three Enactus students from Sheffield University successfully initiated two projects for school leavers in the Mukuni Chiefdom. After funding repairs to four boreholes, a sustainable WASHcom. was set up in remote villages. Six school leavers are now operating a soap-making project and supplying their products to local hotels and lodges. Among the local supporters are Safpar and Stanley Safari Lodge. Emma Kennedy, our UK volunteer, returned to Zambia for three months to assist with our grass root projects.

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Enactus students Rosa, Pete and Sarah,with Gift Kamanisha, project manager

As always I was given a substantial amount of items to distribute, which included medical supplies, knitted items from District 6 Inner Wheel Clubs and football jerseys from York City Football Club, complete with 15 footballs donated by their CEO John McGhee. In addition we received 130 t-shirts impregnated with mosquito nets from New Textiles, Portugal. These are to be given to a remote community where there is a high prevalence of malaria and also to our Zambia volunteers. We are continuing our campaign to help the fight against malaria and to prevent further new cases in these rural villages.

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New strips for ‘top of the league’ Mukuni United Football Club

Thank you to everyone for all your support – without you, none of this could have happened!

Jane Kaye-Bailey

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Malaria Prevention

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[PRESSWIRE] London, UK – 03.06.14 — The Butterfly Tree has been given a licence to import two safe new products to use in the prevention of malaria and other vector-borne diseases.

Globally malaria is the biggest killer of man. 75% of people who die from malaria are children under 5, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The products could potentially save the lives of thousands of children and also help to prevent Onchocerciasis, commonly known as river blindness, caused by the black fly. In areas of the Northern and Western Provinces one in ten people suffer from this condition and currently there are no preventative methods available in Zambia.

The Ministry of Health and the Malaria Control Centre in Zambia have welcomed the products. They have been tested by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the UK and the active ingredients used have been approved by the World Health Organisation.

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Young boy with malaria – Simango Rural Health Centre

The Butterfly Tree is to be given licenses to import and distribute throughout Zambia. Besides using it for our humanitarian projects we are contacting all corporates operating in the nation as this could be hugely beneficial to the mining, agriculture and tourist industries.

Many productive hours are lost as a result of malaria. By selling it to corporates we will be able to create sustainability for our water, health, education and community projects in addition to extensively distributing the products to vulnerable communities.

The first product, MozziMort, is an insecticidal coating used on any hard surface that lasts for two years and could replace the normal method of insecticide spraying, which only lasts for six months.

The second product, MozziMort Larvicide granules, prevents mosquito larvae reaching adult stage: http://biotechinternational.co.uk/

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Mosquitos breed in stagnant water – Siamasimbi Village

Notes to Editors

The Butterfly tree is a UK charity and NGO in Zambia, founded in 2006 by Jane Kaye-Bailey, to support rural communities decimated by the HIV pandemic in Zambia. The charity funds bore holes, health and education facilities, sustainable community projects and an orphan sponsorship programme. From its concept the charity’s philosophy is to ensure that all donor funds go directly into the grass roots projects – no personal fees or administration costs are deducted. All members both in the UK and Zambia are volunteers.

For more information contact:
jane@thebutterflytree.org.uk
+44 (0) 1926 843699

The Butterfly Tree: www.thebutterflytree.org.uk

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May 2014 Newsletter

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The Butterfly Tree has been given a licence to import two safe new malaria prevention products which could potentially save the lives of thousands of children in Zambia. The products Mozzimort and Larvamort, produced by Biotech International can not only help to prevent malaria but also river blindness (Onchocerciasis), also known as Robles disease, which is caused by a black fly. One in ten people suffer from this condition in the Northern and Western Provinces of Zambia and up until now there have been no preventative methods available.

This project dominated my three weeks in Zambia. With the assistance of Stain Musungaila, a local volunteer for The Butterfly Tree and his invaluable contacts, we presented the data to the Ministry of Health’s Enviormental Agency, the Food and Drugs Department and the Malaria Control Board. The products have been approved and we are being granted licencing for the importation, storage, transport and distribution, which will last for three years.

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River blindness is prevelant where in areas of fast-flowing rivers

Sadly there has been a huge increase in the number of new cases of malaria in the region. Mukuni Chiefdom alone has reported over 200 new cases, in the past three years the number has been less than five. This has been caused by a number of factors – lack of insecticidal spraying, insufficient mosquito nets and prolonged heavy rains. Other clincis in the Kazungula District have reported a simular picture, which has created a great deal of concern. Our aim is to get these new products rolling before the onset of rains in November.

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New case of malaria – young boy at Simango Rural Health Centre

With all the excitement created with the malaria prevention project I still had time to visit many other of our projects, most importantly that of water and sanitiation. Accompnied by James Baldwin and Peter Marsh, two civil engineers from our partners Just a Drop, we addressed the situation. To date we have installed some fifteen bore holes in rural schools and villages, but there are many more areas of need, one of those being Nampuyani where school children are drinking our of shallow wells shared by domestic animals. This causes diarrhoal disease, therefore we intend to add a bore hole and VIP latrines for the school.

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Drinking water – pupils at Nampuyani Community School

During my stay I had the pleasure of meeting the Larsgard family from Norway, who have been supporting our orphan sponsorship program for the past five years. They came to Mukuni Village and were introduced to seven of the ten orphans they are sponsoring. As always the sponsor an orphan program plays a vital roll in our work to create sustainable futures for the communities. Some three hundred individual children are currently being sponsored and five students are partaking in further education. We are introducing a workshop to teach skills for those for are unable to seek employment.

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Thore, Marie, Peter and Gro Larsgard – generous donors from Norway

On the 7th and 8th May William Anderson and twelve of his former school friends, celebrating their 50th birthday year, spent two days volunteering for The Butterfly Tree. They had raised funds to built four community houses for widows looking after orphans. In addition they played sport with the children and donated educational supplies and clothing. William, the creative Director of The Team Works mentored grade 12 pupils and schools leavers.

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William Anderson and his volunteers from the UK, Zambia and Australia

As always it was both a rewarding and humbling experience visiting the many schools and villages we support. Once the new malaria prevention project takes off we aim to reach out to thousands more communites to prevent the dehabilitating malaria and Roble diseases.

Jane Kaye-Bailey

Founder

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World Malaria Day 2014

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According to the WHO global efforts to control and eliminate malaria have saved an estimated 3.3 million lives since 2000, reducing malaria mortality rates by 42% globally and 49% in Africa. Malaria remains the biggest killer of man with 75% of deaths occuring in children under the age of five in Africa.

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Mosquito net distribution to rural clinics

This past rainy season has been relentless, which has caused a substantial increase in new cases of malaria, especially in the Mukuni Chiefdom. We are currently working with Biotech International who have created products including Mozzimort for malaria prevention. Our aim is to present these products to the Zambian Ministry of Health and the Malaria Control Centre to gain approval. In the meantime more mosquito nets are needed for children in remote villages. We are currently funding malaria prevention workshops within the communities.

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Mosquito Distribution to Rural Clinics

I am about to leave for Zambia where we have some exciting projects underway. A new Special Education unit for Simango Primary School, expansions to Muchimbale and Chuunga Community Schools and a bore hole for Nampuyani Community School, funded by Attraction Tickets Direct through Just a Drop, who are sending two engineers to give advice on our water projects. I will also be welcoming William Anderson of Teamworks and ten colleagues who are funding and constructing four community houses. Cansaf, South Africa are shortly taking forty delegates to visit our pojects at Mukuni Village.

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Mosquito Nets are vital for Malaria Prevention

All our projects are vitally important, none more so than malaria prevention. A mosquito net costs just £5 ($8) and could save a child’s life, you can make a donation on our website – no adminstration costs will be deducted.

 

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Education in Rural Schools

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2014 has brought hope for thousands of orphaned and vulnerable rural children in the Southern Province of Zambia. We are now reaching out to twenty six schools in four Chiefdoms, spanning a radius of 200 kilometres from our base at Mukuni Village. Over ten thousand children have access to advanced education and many more have access to improved water and health facilities.

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River View Basic School – Sikute Chiefdom

The latest development is taking place at Muchimbale Community School, in the Nyawa Chiefdom, thanks to a generous donor. The school is very remote and has little support from the outside world. Last year The Butterfly Tree installed a bore hole and latrines, completed a teacher’s house and initiated a feeding programme. This year a further donation will enable us to restore an old classroom, purchase books and equipment and introduce a sustainable income-generating activity at the school.

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Muchimbale Community School – Nyawe Chiefdom

Further progress can be seen at Katapazi Basic School with the opening of a special education unit, another one is currently being constructed at Simango Basic School in the Musokotwane Chiefdom, making four in total. Rural children in Zambia, with special needs, have no access to education. Chunga Community School classroom will shortly be completed and our aim is to also build a second classroom at Ndele Community School.

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Mukuni Special Education Unit – funded by The Besom

We have forthcoming visits from a number of volunteers and philanthropists, who have helped us to grow. These include a group from Attraction Tickets Direct, a donor of our partner Just a Drop, who last year funded a bore hole and latrines. Besides international supporters we have engaged a number of local donors and fundraisers.

The ‘Mukuni Shining Stars’ choir, with the help of  Emma Kennedy, one of our UK volunteers, has produced a CD to raise funds to educate orphans. The music is performed A Cappella, which showcases the tremendous talent of these young performers. Several of them are on our orphan sponsorship programme and the choir has performed at some of the renowned hotels around the Victoria Falls.

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The Mukuni Shining Stars

The album can be purchased for just £7 – all proceeds will go directly to the cause. Please use this link to place your order and help raise funds for orphans.

 

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Charity Partners & Sponsors

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Over the years The Butterfly Tree has acquired a number of partners and sponsors, which has helped us to expand our work in Zambia. This has enabled us to install bore holes, build schools and clinics, initiate feeding programmes and sustainable community projects.  In addition our orphan sponsorship programme has paid for the education of hundreds of orphaned and vulnerable children. We have built up a reputation for having a sound record of transparency, being an all-volunteer organisation and for giving regular feedback to our donors.

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Bore Hole and Hand Pump funded by Epsom College

With so much need around the world sadly the charity sector has become very competitive. When it comes to applying for grants, a small charity like ours has to compete against the likes of Red Cross, Oxfam and Save the Children. Therefore it is imperative that we engage both individuals and corporate partners to provide us with the vital funds needed for The Butterfly Tree’s projects. If you own a company, are involved with a school or club, or simply an individual, we can help you to find a project that you can become involved with. Corporate Social Responsibility cannot only be beneficial to a charity, it can also enhance your company by making it more appealing to potential new clients.

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Feeding Programme at Mukuni sponsored by Cunninghams

Our most recent partnership is with Charity Flowers, who give 15% to charity for every order placed with them. Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, followed by Mother’s Day and Easter, when more flowers are sold than at any other time of the year. Follow this link and after choosing your flowers select The Butterfly Tree. Our Source Code is BT.

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Malaria Prevention

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Despite our efforts to support the universal fight against malaria more needs to be done to overcome this destructive disease. Malaria is the biggest killer of man. According to the World Health Organisation an estimated 3.4 billion people are at risk on malaria, of which 1.2 billion are at high risk. 90% of all malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, which of course includes Zambia.

WHO estimates from 2012-13

  • 207 million cases of malaria
  • 627 000 deaths
  • 77% occur in children under five
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Malaria Prevention – early testing for malaria is vital

In recent years The Butterfly Tree’s malaria prevention programme has produced some great results. Now we need to increase the distribution of preventative methods to reach out to many more rural communities. Currently it is the rainy reason in Zambia and the rains are heavy and prolonged, which is great for the crops but not for malaria! To step up our work we have partnered with a SkintoSkin, the company has produced a t-shirt, impregnated with a WHO approved insect repellent. Through a crowd funding initiative a of target £50,000 has been set, which will provide us with invaluable t-shirts for our malaria prevention programme.

One t-shirt costs as little as £10 ($16) and and be bought using this link

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Unprecedented rain in Zambia has caused an increase in malaria cases

On a happier note we are having great success with our education projects at Mukuni. Latest reports show that virtually all grade seven and nine pupils, many of which are on our orphan sponsorship programme, have passed their exams. Mukuni Basic School received the best result for the Kazungula District. Our supporters must take some of the credit for this due to the increase in text books donated to classes where previously one text book had to be shared between forty pupils. In addition a number of volunteers, two of which came through Saga Volunteer Travel, gave extra tuition to grade seven and nine pupils prior to their exams. A generous offer from Video4Books will provide the schools with further reading material.

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Mukuni Basic School gets best exam results in the Kazungula District

This year we aim to increase our malaria prevention support, further expand Meet Mutsa’s peer education project for HIV prevention and open more special education units for children who are unable to attend school. As always we are very grateful for your support and hope that we can encourage more donors and volunteers to join The Butterfly Tree. Our entire team in both the UK and Zambia still consists of volunteers, most of them have been with us since 2006!

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Christmas 2013 – Newsletter

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Christmas is almost upon us and thanks to the tremendous support from our donors, fundraisers and volunteers around the globe many rural children in Zambia have a better future ahead of them.

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Malaria Prevention – distribution of mosquito nets

December has been an incredibly good month for fundraising, most especially thanks to The Big Give Christmas Challenge, when we raised £15,000 in pledges and donations, which will be be doubled through their Charity Champion Fund and The Reed Foundation. In addition we received donations from the US, Canada, Australia, Sweden, Germany, France, Ireland and Switzerland and of course the UK, showing how The Butterfly Tree has attracted donors from all over the world.

We now have funds in place for hundreds more mosquito nets for our malaria prevention program, a teacher’s house, classrooms, seeds for school gardens. stationery for schools and over twenty new orphans added to our orphan sponsorship programme. Providing the essentials in life is what these communities most need to enable them to have a healthier and happier life.

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New teacher’s house coming for Muchimbale Community School

The Butterfly Tree team would like to thank everyone who has helped us reach out to thousands and orphaned children in the Southern Province of Zambia. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

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WORLD AIDS DAY

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Today marks World AIDS Day – the following statistics can be found on The World Health Organisation website:

  • 35.3 million people living with HIV in 2012

  • 2.1 million adolescents were living with HIV in 2012

  • 9.7 million people in low- and middle-income countries were receiving antiretroviral therapy

One thing I have learnt in the seven years I have been running The Butterfly Tree is that no lasting change can be made unless HIV Prevention is included in our work. Zambia alone has 710,000 orphans, with Mukuni Village along with Livingstone, having the fourth highest statistics in the nation. A staggering 27% of the population are infected with HIV. Although we have made a great deal of improvement in the provision of water, education, malaria prevention and maternity care much more needs to be done to reduce new infections of HIV.

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World AIDS Day – one of the hundreds of orphans in the Mukuni Chiefdom

Mutsa Marau, our own HIV Prevention Coordinator, is currently in Zambia working with groups of school children. Her invaluable work through her ‘Catch me I’m a Butterfly‘ project teaches HIV prevention through Peer Education and is proving to be a great success. Gaining the trust of the children Mutsa trained her first group in 2011 who are now assisting her to ‘spread the word’.

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HIV Prevention through Peer Education

In addition to Mukuni, Mutsa is targeting N’gandu Basic School and is delighted to have an increase in the uptake from the young people, who want to learn and know how to live healthy HIV free lives. To read more about Mutsa’s project click on this link.

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Natasha, sponsored orphan, assisting Mutsa at N’gandu Basic School

Other HIV projects supported by The Butterfly Tree include orphan sponsorship, funding HIV Education workshops to invite people for voluntary testing, to reduce the stigma and counselling. We also provide help to woman and infants, fund treatment for people suffering with HIV and AIDS and provide community housing for widows and the elderly supporting orphans.

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Widow in Kamwi Village receives community house

This week we have the opportunity to double donations through the Big Give Christmas Challenge for our orphan support programme. Thank you to everyone who has offered to participate- here again are the guidelines: Between the 5th to 7th December we need to raise £10,000 via The Big Give – if we reach this amount during that period our donations will be doubled to £20,000 – so we need your help.

  • When – 10am or as close to 10am as possible on the 5th, 6th, 7th December – as the donations close once an amount is reached.
  • Where – to The Butterfly Tree’s ‘Orphan Support’ project on the Big Give website
  • How –  on line using a credit or debit card on the Big Give website

If you require any further details please send an email to jane@thebutterflytree.org.uk or telephone: + 44 (0) 1926 843699 ‘Like’ us on Facebook and receive brief news updates!

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October Newsletter

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I recently returned home after another rewarding visit to Zambia. It is hard to believe the progress we have made. What started off as helping a handful of orphans has now expanded to over twenty schools, seven clinics and more than 100 villages in four Chiefdoms, throughout the Southern Province of Zambia. The distance we are covering is a radius of 200 kilometres from base and thousands more orphaned and vulnerable children are receiving a sound education, improved healthcare and drinking safe, clean water.

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Jane with Kamwi twins, Elvis and Vincent now three years old

Bore holes have been installed at Kauwe and Muchimbala schools with a third one about to be completed at Kanimbwa. Not only do the pupils have access to safe drinking water, but the bore holes will be used to irrigate crops for much needed feeding programmes. I was horrified to learn that some of the food, provided by the World Food Programme, is rotten by the time it reaches the schools.

One Head teacher reported that this year the food provision had been delivered for term one, the second term the maize was stale and the beans were mouldy. When the Head complained he was told by the distributors ‘beggars cannot be choosers – they can eat it!’ Nothing was received for term three. It is heartbreaking, knowing that young school children have no food during the day. Many of them leaving home as early as 4am to return twelve hours later, on any empty stomach. Next month we will increase the number of donated seeds to support this project.

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New bore hole and Indian hand pump for Kauwe Basic School

As the rainy season approaches so does the increased risk of contracting malaria. Though prevalent all year, malaria cases increase between November and March. I spent two days distributing mosquito nets to outreach communities. Due to the remoteness of these villages the government do not spray the mud huts putting the people at great risk. Our malaria prevention programmed is vital. Thanks to Saga’s generous funding and most recently Health Express we have been able to cover much of the Mukuni Chiefdom and beyond. Since January no new cases of malaria have been reported in under fives and zero deaths caused by malaria.

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Malaria prevention – Ndele children receive mosquito nets

While I was in Zambia I was invited by Sky News to give a ‘live’ interview on the much anticipated malaria vaccination, which could be available as soon as 2015. Glaxo,SmithKline has developed the first ever vaccine and I was asked to comment on how effective this could be for our malaria prevention programme.

Malaria remains the biggest killer of man. Every year around 660,000 people, mostly children under the age of five in sub-Sahara Africa, die from this mosquito-borne parasitic disease.

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Malaria prevention – mosquito nets donated to Siachalwa Village

On another serious matter sadly the HIV and AIDS statistics remain far too high, at 27%, in the Mukuni and Livingstone areas. We are continuing our support for children with HIV, increasing our funding for workshops, specifically targeting school children. Mutsa Marau, our HIV prevention coordinator, will return to Zambia next month to offer peer education for HIV prevention. As always I was presented with a long list of orphans who need help. Our sponsor an orphan programme has supported hundreds of individual children in education.

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Orphan sponsorship – Enoch to be sponsored by The Butterfly Tree

Now it is back to raising funds for mosquito nets, classrooms, bore holes and orphan sponsorship through a number of planned initiatives. Our popular desk top calendar will shortly be available to order. In December we have the opportunity to get donations matched thanks through our partner the Big Give, through their Christmas Challenge initiative. Already we have £5000 in pledges, now we need to raise a further £10,000 in donations from 5th December. If we are successful, the £15,000 will be turned into a massive £30,000. Anyone who would like to help us reach our goal please contact jane@thebutterflytree.org.uk