The main source of income for the rural villages near the Victoria Falls is curio selling, most especially the beautiful wood carvings. There are two main areas where these can be purchased, one is the Victoria Falls Craft Village and the other is at Mukuni Village Curios Craft Market.

I have been working with the both craft centres to help them improve their methods of selling curios; unfortunately they had been receiving bad press as they were noted for being too pushy, which can be off putting to a tourist visiting the area for the first time. I can sympathise with them knowing that without a precious sale, which enables them to buy a bag of ground maize, the family may go hungry.

Photo: Mukuni Village Curios

Now the guys from Mukuni Village have now ‘cleaned up their act’ and a trip to either of the markets is a definite must on everyone’s itinerary. The animal carvings which are mostly made in Mukuni, are very popular, using African woods - magongany, iron, and ebony; the worksmanship is of a high standard and the prices very reasonable. Elaborate walking sticks, tribal masks, drums and basketware are also locally made as well as unusual soap stone carvings. The Butterfly Tree has set up two families in business and also supported a sustainable business for a group of widows to produce needlecraft, intricate African beadwork and jewellery.

It was the first time that the European Travel Distribution Summit had a charity stand in their exhibition hall. Some attendees where surprised to see The Butterfly Tree exhibiting and many congratulated Eye for Travel for including us. Fellow exhibitors showed a keen interest offering a link to our website, some gave donations of software and money and several offered to promote the charity.

The seminar, which I hosted, was aimed at getting more companies involved in Philanthropic Travel and responsible tourism initiatives. Too many do not have any kind of corporate social responsibility programs and Gyonne James from Tourism Concern discussed this issue along with exploitation in the tourist industry. Victoria Bolton of Charity Challenge told the audience how their company helps to reduce world poverty through fundraising expeditions while Mark Nall, Chief Executive of Everyclick explained how businesses and individuals can generate money for charities by using their search engine.

The travel industry has a huge capacity to raise funds for NGO’s and charities especially through the internet. Tour operators need to make their tourists aware of the poverty surrounding their luxury resorts, in the developing countries they are visiting. Hoteliers must provide clean water, health and education for local communiteis as well as becoming ‘eco’ friendly. It is essential that this industry awakens to its responsibilities, using their marketing skills to promote awareness and help to reduce world poverty.

With five days left until the European Travel Distribution Summit, there is still time to register for the seminar hosted by The Butterfly Tree at 11am on Wednesday 21st May at the Business Design Centre, North London - The Butterfly Tree Seminar Registration 

A key aim of The Butterfly Tree charity is to reduce world poverty through the tourist industry and we are delighted that Eye for Travel have given us this opportunity to join such a renowed group of exhibitors and speakers at this marketing event. They have generously given us a room to host a seminar as well as an exhibiting stand for the duration and also named The Butterfly Tree as the summit’s official charity.

Along with Exquisite Safaris we will continue to promote Philanthropic Travel and responsible tourism and hope to get this message over to many of the tour operators, hoteliers and other members of the tourist industry who have a great capacity to improve the health, education, water and enviromental issues in the developing countries where they are operating.

For more information and to register for the seminar, click here

Last night I attended a fundraising event for The Butterfly Tree in Nottingham hosted by SWITCH and orgainzed by my son, Mike and his friends to raise money for a Science lab at Mukuni High School. The venue was Ecucha, one of Nottingham’s top bars and Basement Crew, a live DJ set from Zambian provided the music.

The evening was a great success and all the money raised will go towards The Butterfly Tree project to build a science lab at Mukuni High School. The drinks were sponsored by Peroni and Bacardi Brown-Forman and the bar staff donated their wages to add to the total. Zambian DJs , Basement Crew, were amazing, playing Zambian music, which proved to be more popular than the UK hits; the African beat creating a great atmsophere.

Photo: SWITCH members Mike, Nick and Christian

Photo: Zambian DJs; Basement Crew from Zambia

The Butterfly Tree would like to thank SWITCH, Escucha, the sponsors and all the bar staff and the Zambian DJs who freely volunteered their services.

During the recent teacher’s strike I am sure that many of you had sympathy for the wonderful people who educate our children. If you think that they are badly done to in this country, in Zambia, where the average monthly pay for a teacher is £75, teachers have to endure appalling living conditions. They have no choice of schools, a teacher can be sent anywhere throughout the country, and despite having lived in a town or city, they suddenly find themselves in the middle of the bush with no plumbing or electricity.

At Mukuni Village I see teachers living in leaking storerooms, tuck shops and classrooms, sharing a pit-latrine toilet and an ‘open air’ bathroom, using bowls of cold water to wash with. Sadly The Butterfly Tree receives very few donations to build teacher’s houses, despite the fact that teachers are the backbone of these remote schools. In one house where there are five male teachers, with only four rooms, one poor guy has to sleep in a cupboard. It is these teachers who are helping the orphans to overcome their hardships and find a way to better their lives.

As well as having poor living conditions the teachers are also battling with inadequate facilities. Many classrooms are in desparate need of restoration, books are in short supply and the sports facilities are virtually non-existant, with numerous schools having to use ‘bag and string’ footballs and the gymnasts training on the ‘dirt’ ground. Most rural schools have no plumbing or electricty, many are without even a bore hole, and some with no facilities at all, use using the shade of a mango tree to conduct their lessons.

Photo: Classroom in Zambia

We are seeking corporates and individuals to sponsor a teacher’s house or classroom, with a donation between £5000 - £20000 you could make a difference to an entire Zambian community.