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
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
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.
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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