The last three months have been very eventful for The Butterfly Tree. In May we hosted a seminar on responsible tourism and philanthropic travel at the European Travel Distribution Summit; the organisers Eye for Travel named The Butterfly Tree as the summit’s official charity. This was a great networking opportunity especially as we are working so close to the Victoria Falls, a major tourist catchment area in Zambia.

We have had many people contacting us to do fundraising events and sponsorships, Mike Kaye with SWITCH raised a substantial amount of money at an event in Nottingham, where two Zambian DJs provided African music. This summer we have supporters participating in the ‘strong man’ competition, a sky dive and a marathon all offering to raise money for the charity. Also there are several volunteers from the UK and Norway going out to help at Mukuni Basic School and the health centre all of them are self-funding.

At last the maternity clinic, helped by a grant from KTCT is now complete with ante-natal, delivery room, toilets and showers. The Chieftainess performed a tribal blessing at the opening ceremony, attended by the department of health. We have been told that our successful under fives’ feeding program, supported by Avert, which replaces breastfeeding in HIV positive mothers, is the first in the entire nation. Our aim is raise funds for other areas, especially where many babies are suffering from malnutrition. The Mukuni Basic School’s feeding program, provided by The Butterfly Tree, is now supporting 230 vulnerable children; this number will increase in September.

 
  Butterfly Tree maternity clinic | Jane opening Mukuni maternity clinic

Water is being pumped at Chise village thanks to the new bore hole we were able to provide with assistance from Just a Drop. The Butterfly Tree plans to build three further bole holes this year in other remote villages; this is one of our top priorities.

The Butterfly Tree is working with TME to distribute their educational DVDs, on key subjects such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, TB and safe water throughout the nation targeting schools, hotels and local communities. We have built two boarding houses to assist older pupils who walk long distances to get to school; they can now remain at Mukuni Village during the week.

Earlier this year Zambia experienced the worst flooding in decades. The Butterfly Tree answered the presidents’ flood appeal by air freighting over 1000 kilos of medical supplies, blankets and clothing to distribute amongst the victims. We are now assisting the 19 health clinics in Kazungula District with medical supplies and equipment, including much needed dentistry tools.

 
Bore hole and pump for Chise Village | Mukuni boarding house

We are still able to give 100% of all donations, which go directly to the cause and our team of dedicated helpers in Zambia are committed to assisting other districts as the charity expands. Many thanks to all our helpers both here and especially at Mukuni Village and our generous supporters, in the UK, the US and other areas of the globe; without your help, none of this would have been possible.

As always we need further funds to start additional feeding programs, build more classrooms and bores holes for communities still having to drink river water. We are supporting 116 orphans but urgently need more sponsors for the hundreds of children left orphaned due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Your donations could make a huge difference to someone’s life.

If you would like to read more about our work please go to the website: www.thebutterflytree.org.uk or if you wish to offer further support contact Jane on email jane@thebutterflytree.org.uk or telephone 01926 843699

Best regards,

Jane Kaye-Bailey
Founder of The Butterfly Tree

New clinic at Mukuni Village

The hightlight of any trip for an NGO has to be when a vision becomes a reality. For almost two years I have strived to complete a maternity clinic for the women in the Mukuni Chiefdom. Having heard that many Afican women die in labour, in their attempt to reach a rural clinic; I was totally committed and determined to see this project through.

Thanks to an initial grant from John Humprys’ Kitchen Table Charities Trust the building is finished. As often happens, the governments’ plans were way under budget and it has taken a substantial amount of additional funds to include ever-increasing costs for materials, plumbing, electricity and equipment. The Butterfly Tree has been offered an ultra-sound scanner, which will further enhance the project.

Maternity clinic for Mukuni Village

The Beyango, Chieftainess of Mukuni, performed a tribal blessing before I cut the ribbon to officially open the clinic. Members from the Kazungula district health office were in attendance along with village headmen and community members.

Jane officially opening the maternity clinic at Mukuni Village

The clinic has an ante-natal room, a nurses’ station, delivery room, showers and toilets making a vast improvement on the tiny two-bedded room at the existing Mukuni health centre.

Fresh, safe water for Mukuni Chiefdom

Of all the projects we have achieved in the Mukuni Chiefdom, providing a bore for rural villages has to be top of the list. Water, the most precious of commodities is taken for granted in our priveleged western world, but when you have to draw water from a crocodile infested river, receiving a bore hole can make a huge difference to a remote community.

For the people of Chise Village life is very hard; extreme poverty and unemployment affects every family, now at least they have fresh, safe water and it was a pleasure to visit these people and receive their apprecation. Just a Drop kindly provided assistance for The Butterfly Tree to initiate this project and a Zambian company was used to drill and build the bore hole.

We have done a survey of all the villages in the Mukuni Chiefdom and our aim is to provide them all with safe, clean water. For just £3200 we can provide an entire community with a bore hole complete with pump.  

Education is key to the HIV/AIDS fight in Zambia

Although the HIV/AIDS in Zambia situation is not getting any worse it is not improving fast enough. Education is the key factor to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic. A quote from Avert, ‘as of 2005, although almost all adult Zambians know that HIV/AIDS exists, still 8.8% of the population do not know that it can be avoided. Over 25% of adults think that mosquitos can transmit HIV, 22% think they can be infected by withchraft; and 15% believe that sharing a meal with an infected person puts them at risk. The level of understanding is lower in towns, and women are less knowledgeable than men’.

The Butterfly Tree aims to built more pre-schools in Zambia; almost half of the population is between 5 and 14 years old, very few have HIV. and by educating these young Zambians at an early age the HIV/AIDS statistics can be reduced. There is little else to occupy these children, living in poor rural communites, unless they can go to school.

The Mukuni Village pre-school built by The Butterfly Tree, thanks to a generous donation by Gardiff, who are also supporting two teachers and a classroom helper, is a huge success. Over 200 children attend three classes throughout the day, learning English and Maths skills, preparing them for the basic school at the age of five.

We need donors to sponsor more pre-schools for Ngandu and Kamwi and other villages supported by The Butterfly Tree. At Mukuni and many schools in Livingstone we are using educational DVDS, provided by TME, to teach HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention and voluntary testing. These are the childen who, by helping in the fight against HIV/AIDS, could really make a difference.

Tourists give generously to Mukuni Village

During my talks at the travel exhibitions I always state that if tourists were made more aware, by their tour operators, of the poverty surrounding their luxury resorts, then they would be more inclined to give a donation.

One tour company, Exquisite Safaris and one of our partners insists on sending their clients to visit a humantarian project as an essentail part of their itinerary. Exquisite Safaris is the pioneer in luxury philanthropic travel and donates $US250 for every client who visits an NGO project and The Butterfly Tree is fortunate to be operating in a catchment area, being so close to the Victoria Falls, where tourists can make daily visits to Mukuni Village.

This year we have received many offers of visitors wishing to sponsor an orphan or give a donation to this rural community and just as I was so touched on my first visit, others have felt the same. I am delighted to say that several of these people have come ‘on board’ to raise further funds and awareness for The Butterfly Tree.

Zambia is experiencing a ‘boom’ in tourism and as an NGO I am dedicated to getting more tour operators, lodges, hotels and tourists involved in ‘giving something back’. Just a small donation could make a difference to someone’s life and a more substantial one could built a bore hole, providing safe, clean water for hundreds of people.

No more babies suffering from malnutrition

Twelve months ago, during one of my visits to Mukuni Village, I was saddened to hear that a baby had died from malnutrion. The infants father had passed away only a few days earlier, suffering from TB and her older brother was one of our sponsored orphans. I immediately set up a feeeding program at the Mukuni Health Centre.

Mothers who are HIV positive are discouraged to breatfeed babies over six months, in order to prevent the transmission of HIV from mother to infant. This is virtually impossible when you are so poor that you cannot find the money to pay for  nutritional food; resulting in a child being prone to illness and subsequently malnutrition.

Within six months The Butterfly Tree’s feeding program has greatly improved Read the rest of this entry »

A work of Art

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 Fall Craft Village and the other is at Mukuni Village Craft Market.

I have been working with the both centres to help them improve their methods of selling; 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.

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 are the most 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.

The travel industry must awaken

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.

The Butterfly Tree - Stand 51

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.

A key aim of The Butterfly Tree 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

Zambian DJs help fundraise 

Last night I attended a fundraising event 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. The drinks were sponsored by Peroni and Bacardi Brown-Forman and the bar staff donated their wages to add to the total. Basement Crew were amazing, playing Zambian music, which proved to be more popular than the UK hits; the African beat creating a great atmsophere.

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

SWITCH members Mike, Nick and Christian

Basement Crew from Zambia