With just four days left before my departure to Zambia there are many details to finalise. My sons have achieved an amazing result raising funds to build a home for a widow and orphans receiving enough donations to build three homes. They will physically help with the construction to cut down on labour costs.

Joining me are two volunteers from Australia, Professor Doug Saunders and his wife who will be working at Mukuni Health Centre for two weeks besides setting up a program to send medical students to assist at the clinic and Livingstone Hopital. Casey Short and Margaret Bax from Oregon State will be volunteering their professionsal skills to help Mukuni Basic School and The Butterfly Tree community projects. We now have a representative in the US, Frank Maiolo who visited Mukuni some years ago has been sponsoring a number of orphans through the charity.

Young girl from Mukuni

With so much need it is often hard to prioritise, the basis of our work is for the benefit of the orphans and vulnerable children ensuring that they receive an education, safe water and food. Besides Mukuni Village we are working in several other schools and supporting 210 children in education. Currently we building a new classroom at Katapazi thanks to JOAC we are also upgrading their clinic. In the forhtcoming year we aim to upgrade Kamwi Basic and Simamsimbi Basic Schools. With the generous offer of a bore hole at Kamwi, to be donated by Just a Drop we have managed to provide safe, clean water for all the schools we are supporting.

No doubt when I arrive at Mukuni there will be more children who have been orphaned in the past few months. Education is the only way these vulnerable people will overcome the devastation caused by the HIV/AIDS in Zambia pandemic. You can sponsor an orphan for just £8 per month or £95 (US150) per annum and make a difference to someone’s life.

Victoria Falls, Zambia is one of the severn natural wonders of the world and one of the most stunning places on earth. Just a few miles from the tourism capitol of Livingstone and a boundary between Zambia and Zimbabwe, this breathtaking spectacle occurs. Standing 108 meters high at the height of the floods the Victoria Falls form the largest sheet of falling water in the world. Over 545 million cubic metres a minute (9 million meters per second) cascade over the edge. It has a span of 1,708 meters of which 1,200 is in Zambia, reputed to have the most spectacular views from this side of the Zambezi.

Victoria Falls – Zambia

For most visitors to Southern Africa it is a must, staying in hotels, such as Sun International’s Royal Livingstone and Zambezi Sun on the edge of the mighty Zambezi River, flowing some 2,200 miles from it’s source in Northern Zambia, finally reaching its destination in the Indian Ocean. In 1855 David Livingstone was the first European to discover the Victoria Falls, formerly know as the Mosi-oa-Tunya meaning the Smoke that Thunders, the name is still used by the local Leya people.

Zambezi River – the ‘Smoke that Thunders’ in the background

The Holy ground of the Victoria Falls region has been a place of worship to the Leya people for centuries. Bene Mukuni Kingdom is the permanent traditional headquarters of the Leya people. It is one of the largest of its kind in Africa and is unique in having two palaces, Lumpasa for the male ruler and Nanjina for the female co-ruler.  Every year the Lwiindi Ceremony takes place over the New Year period, this is The Cultural Feast of The Spray Ceremony of the Victoria Falls.

If you are visiting the Victoria Falls, please take time to visit Mukuni Village, where the The Butterfly Tree runs its organisation in Zambia. We fund a number of projects to support these gentle people who have suffered so much from the HIV/AIDS in Zambia pandemic, leaving thousands of children orphaned. If you would like to take a private tour around the school and the village please contact jane@thebutterflytree.org.uk

I am delighted to report that The Butterfly Tree has had an extremely successful year, despite the global crisis. Each year since March 2006 we have been able to reach out to more rural schools and villages. This is due to several factors: the continual sourcing of new funds and grants, spreading awareness, promoting the charity through the tourist industry and our website which resulted in a Google AdWords charity award. Last September we were shortlisted to the final five of the ‘Best New Charity of the Year’ at the Charity Times Awards in London.

Working with the tourist industry to reduce world poverty, The Butterfly Tree was chosen as the official charity at the 2008 European Travel Distribution Summit, where we hosted a seminar on philanthropic travel and corporate social initiatives. We have recently been featured in Conde Nast Traveler and numerous tourists who have visited Zambia have offered support. All of these achievements have helped The Butterfly Tree to gain international recognition and increase awareness of the significant work we are doing in these remote communities.

The Zambian team is based in Mukuni Village close to the Victoria Falls and it is here where all the projects are initiated. They are an amazing group of people and I would like to thank them for their tireless efforts – the secretary who does a wonderful job of administering the charity, all of the committee and the ten female representatives who look after the welfare of the orphans. A special thanks to Chief Mukuni for his counsel and to the Bedyango, Chieftainess of Mukuni.

Although all the projects we fund are of great importance water is the most vital. Seeing people drinking from crocodile-infested rivers is very distressing; seeing the six new bore holes, four of them situated in schools, is a very humbling experience and has made a huge difference to the lives of over two and a half thousand children.

Supporting these developing countries, working with local authorities and increasing grass root projects, is crucial. Zambia has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world; Africa malaria is another of the serious diseases. This year the World Health Organisation selected Zambia as a role model after seeing a 66% reduction in malaria mortality during the last decade. Other major problems are TB, malnutrition, lack of safe water, poor health and education facilities. Poverty is the cause of most of these issues as 64% of the population is living on less than fifty pence a day.

Our most challenging project this year is to extend the health centre and school at Katapazi, some two hour drive from Mukuni. A male ward will be added to the clinic and a new classroom for older school pupils up to grade nine. As always, children remain the focal point of our work and the number of HIV/AIDS orphans is still far too high. Although we are currently supporting two hundred, we need many more people to sponsor an orphan. All our programs are for the benefit of these vulnerable children. They are the future and by educating them they are the ones who can make a considerable difference. Many of the orphans will be involved in the sustainable projects we are setting up with the schools.

This has been the Butterfly Tree’s finest year to date both in fundraising in achievements. However I feel I cannot fail to mention the period in November which shook all of us when Lawrence Bailey, my late husband, was tragically killed in a helicopter accident. He was a great support to both me and the charity and gave generously both his time and money. An astounding £7500 was donated to The Butterfly Tree in Lawrence’s memory.

I sincerely thank everyone who has contributed to the growth and success of the charity this year, regrettably too many to mention individually, though each has helped us to achieve our aims. My thanks to the volunteers in the UK, to those who have travelled from England, USA and Australia to work at the schools and clinic, and to the medical companies who have donated valuable supplies. I would like to welcome Miranda de Freston to the board of trustees and thank her for providing and hosting the website, attracting a huge number of global followers. All the support we have received has given us the resources to equip these remote communities with the essentials in life that so many of us take for granted – water, food, health and education.

View the full Charity Annual Report Here

Jane Kaye-Bailey

Chairman

Losing a parent is heartbreaking for any child; then having to give up your education makes it almost unbearable. This is the case of many orphans in Zambia. In the six Zambian schools supported by The Butterfly Tree there are almost 1000 orphans. To date we are sponsoring 175 children and desperately need more  donors to sponsor orphans in Zambia. On my last trip to Mukuni Village I was staggered to meet over sixty children who could not meet their school and exam fees. By giving a child an education it is not just giving them a chance in life it is also giving them hope.

Mukabalenga was one of the first orphans in Zambia to be on The Butterfly Tree orphan sponsorship program and writes the following letter to her sponsor:

“It’s really beyond human understanding for me to have this opportunity of writing this letter to you, hope and trust all is well with you, as for me not so bad. I really appreciate your support, I don’t how I can express my appreciation. You are playing an important role in my life such as that I cannot think of my dead parents. I don’t have much to say only words of thanks dwelling in my heart.” 

Orphans in Zambia: Mukabalenga Siachanane at Mukuni Basic School

By paying for the orphans’ schooling, which covers school and exam fees, books, uniforms, shoes and school bag someone in the villages will accommodate them. This way the orphans do not have to be sent to the orphanages in Livingstone. Often it pushes the guardians further below the poverty line but at least the orphans are able to remain at the school with their friends, the teachers are very generous some of them having as many as five orphans living with them. Presley Mulenga, Head Teacher at Mukuni Basic School has five of his own chilren plus seven orphans living with he and his wife in his two-bedroomed house. The Butterfly Tree offers a daily feeding program to orphans in Zambia, sponsored by Cunninghams, to over 500 vulnerable children providing them a nutritional meal in addition to their morning porridge.

It costs only £95 ($150) to sponsor orphans in Zambia, alternatively £8 per month. I believe that every child has a right to education. Many more like Mukabalanga urgently need your help. To find out more visit our orphan sponsorship page. See the orphans singing with the choir on Youtube.