We have all complained about the heavy rainfall this summer, not giving a thought to the fact that our rivers and reservoirs are full, enabling us all to have an abundance of water for drinking, bathing, washing and watering the garden. When you have to rely on unpurified river water for drinking, which you then have to carry a great distance to your home, you really have something to complain about!

The risk of disease, river blindness and the fear of crocodiles are all concerns that people living in remote communities in Zambia have to contend with. Now three village schools can benefit from new bore holes thanks to our partners Just a Drop, who are generously donating funds for us to build boreholes at Mukuni, Katapazi and Siamasimbi Schools. No longer will the children have to carry water to school instead they will experience for the first time the taste of safe water in their school grounds.

Photo: Women and children from Chise Village, Mukuni Chiefdom

The Butterfly Tree is now providing support to five schools in the Mukuni Chiefdom and supporting over 120 orphans in education. I will be leaving for Zambia tomorrow and no doubt there will be many more children who have lost their parents since my last trip in June. It is vital to give these children the essentials in life - water, food, health and education. They are the generation who could make a difference in the fight against HIV/AIDS. With your support this can happen, if you would like to sponsor a child, provide funds for a feeding program or donate funds for a bore hole, your support will be greatly appreciated. 100% of all donations go directly to the cause.

Although The Butterfly Tree did not win the Charity Times Award it was a great achievement to have been shortlisted to the final five and to be present amongst many of the well known charities. These big organisations do a terrific job, but it is the smaller charities such as ours that are needed to can fill in the gaps. On several occassions I have visited rural villages, like Mukuni, where the community have been given some bricks and cement to build a classroom, to find that these materials were only enough to reach window level, resulting in the project being abandoned.

We desperately need to build more classrooms and teacher’s houses to advance the education in these remote villages. Although we are making good progress in Mukuni Village the teacher’s accomodation is appalling, we are about to complete our third house but at least three more are needed. The Head Teacher has thirteen people living in his two bedroom house, five of them are orphans. With the ever increasing cost of living it pushes these families below the poverty line, which makes the orphan sponsorship program a vital support. As do the feeding programs, which enable the orphans and vulnerable children to receive a daily nutritional meal and helps to lift some of the burden from their guardians.  

 Adolescents like these boys at Mukuni need nutritional meals

By sponsoring an orphan you can give a child hope; by sponsoring a feeding program you can remove the hunger from hundreds of children and by funding a classroom you can give these children the education to overcome their hardships - Get Involved

Shilla Mwanakwaba is 11 years old and comes from Mukuni Village, she lost her mother when she was 6 and comes from a large family. She has been sponsored by The Butterfly Tree since December 2006. For the past few years she has looked after by an aunt who also has several younger children to care for. One of our representatives, who check on the welfare of our orphans, believed the Shilla was not receiving proper care with the aunt so is now living with her grandmother in nearby Livingstone town. Shilla, though missing her friends at Mukuni, is being well cared for and her grades at school, have greatly improved.

Photo: Shilla aged 11 years from Mukuni Village

The Butterfly Tree has had an extremely successful year raising donations through grants, corporate and indivduals; the number of tourists who visit Mukuni Village has also boosted the funds. To view our annual report and accounts visit - click here

Much of the success is down to two factors: 100% of all donations raised go directly to the cause and all our members both in the UK and at Mukuni are volunteers. I especially wish to thank the Zambian team, all have full time jobs in the village, who give up their free time to administer the projects. Although the majority of the funds are raised in the UK, without the support of The Butterfly Tree in Zambia, we would not be able to accomplish so much.

Young Mukuni boy at The Butterfly Tree pre-school

It is difficult to single out any individuals but the following deserve a mention, Cunninghams for their ongoing support of the feeding program at Mukuni Basic school, Gardiff for continual sponsorship of the pre school, Saga Charitable Trust for their donations to the Mukuni Health Centre, BFSS for their grant to equip the high school, KTCT for the funding of the Mukuni Maternity Clinic, Just a Drop who are funding our bore holes and TME for the HIV/AIDS educational DVDs.

Working with Exquisite Safaris to promote Philanthropic Travel and responsible tourism has brought interest to our work from the US; speaking at the Global Luxury Forum and the World Travel Market in 2007 enabled me enrol more members of the tourist industry in the fight against world poverty.

However much more needs to be done, we need to increase our orphan sponsorship program, not just at Mukuni but other rural schools, unfortunately the stastistics of HIV/AIDS are not declining with 710,000 children orphaned through this devastating disease, we are seeking more of you to sponsor a child. We need funding for additional classrooms, teachers’ houses and feeding programs for remote schools, safe water and community housing besides further improving the facilties at Mukuni Health Centre and other rural clinics.

Finally a special thank you to Juggle Frogs for donating and hosting this inspiring website.

I am delighted to announce that The Butterfly Tree charity has been short listed for the prestigious Charity Times Awards. This is a tremendous achievement as the judges commended the high calibre of entries in this year’s Awards. These Awards acknowledge and encourage best practice in the management of charities and not-for-profit organisations.

The Butterfly Tree has been shortlisted for the Best New Charity, awarded to an organisation that has made a demonstrable impact since its foundation, achieved both awareness of itself and its cause, and set the foundations of excellent management and accountability in place since 1st January 2006.

Jane Kaye-Bailey Founder & Chairman of The Butterfly Tree

I would like to thank all the team members both here and especially in Mukuni Village for their hard work, dedication and commitment. We are all volunteers enabling 100% of all donations to go directly to the cause.

The Charity Times Awards winner will be announced at the awards ceremony held on 18 September 2008 at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London.