The Prime Minister has honoured Jane Kaye-Bailey for her inspiring voluntary work with The Butterfly Tree with a Points of Light Award.
The Prime Minister’s daily Points of Light award recognises outstanding individual volunteers – people who are making positive changes in their communities.
Jane received the award from Nadhim Zahawi from the Department of Education in Westminster today.
The Butterfly Tree – Points of Life
Jane Kaye-Bailey, from Warwick, founded ‘The Butterfly Tree’ charity in 2006 after a trip to Zambia with her late husband, with the aim of helping orphans living in rural communities.
The charity has helped 10,000 people to access to safe water and developed wide-reaching sustainable feeding programmes for over 2,000 orphans and vulnerable children every day, providing seeds and fertiliser for vulnerable families. Jane also helped fund 35 schools, including developing four special educational needs units. For nearly a decade her charity has also funded a successful malaria prevention programme in Zambia, providing over 12,000 mosquito nets, sharing malaria testing kits and leading educational workshops.
In a personal letter to Jane, Prime Minister Theresa May said:
“Thanks to your leadership and determination, ‘The Butterfly Tree’ has supported thousands of orphans living in rural communities in Zambia through sustainable feeding programmes, special educational needs units in local schools, malaria prevention programmes and so much more. You should be tremendously proud of the impact your work is having transforming the lives of these vulnerable young people.”
Nadhim Zahawi, Jane’s local MP for Stratford on Avon, said:
“I had the pleasure of meeting Jane back in 2016 where I learnt about her charity, ‘The Butterfly Tree’, and its fantastic work on malaria prevention and supporting orphaned children in Zambia. For me, it is therefore beyond doubt that Jane is an extremely worthy recipient of this award and I pass on my warmest congratulations to her.
“As the Minister responsible for special educational needs provision here in the UK, I have a particular interest in and great admiration for ‘The Butterfly Tree’s work to fund 35 schools and develop four special educational needs units. These schools and units will have made an immeasurable contribution to the lives of some of the world’s most vulnerable children, so I want to thank Jane for all she has done and everything that she will continue to do in the future.”
Jane said:
“I am both delighted and humbled to receive this unexpected award from the Prime Minister. ‘The Butterfly Tree’s work revolves around the plight of the 1.2 million children left orphaned in Zambia, and to help the global fight against malaria.
“The charity was founded in 2006 to sponsor the education of orphans. I have been overwhelmed by the continual global support that has enabled us to build entire schools, health centres and homes, as well as providing safe clean water and sanitation.
“I would like to share this award with the orphans and all our volunteers, both in the UK and Zambia, who have worked tirelessly to reach out to vulnerable children in remote communities. Thank you so much for this honour, which has given a real boost to our grassroots charity!”
AidEx Aid Innovation Challenge Finalist
The Butterfly Tree has been selected as a finalist at the AidEx Aid Innovation Challenge 2018 on Wednesday 14th November. This is for our ‘Malaria Prevention Innovation’ initiative.
The Challenge takes place at Brussels Expo on 14th November. Jane Kaye-Bailey had submitted our entry and will pitch our malaria prevention project to the judges. Using Vectorcide Coating and Larvicide The Butterfly Tree carried out all the field study tests in Zambia and is the first charity in the world to use the products. Since 2015, in areas of distribution in remote areas, the number of malaria cases have significantly reduced.
The AidEx Aid Innovation Challenge aims to find the next big invention to impact the delivery of aid. The Aid Innovation Challenge is an exciting opportunity for those with a unique idea to help others. This award is open to design agencies, engineering companies and also individuals – anyone who has a new concept or product that will save or improve lives. It is a unique chance to pitch life-changing inventions to a panel of experts from the sector live at AidEx.
Myself and the rest of the Butterfly Tree volunteers are so proud of the work that Jane does and the vision that she has.
Miranda de Freston (Trustee)
