Health
HIV/AIDS, malaria, TB and diarrhoea are the major health problems in Zambia. The HIV/AIDS pandemic has pushed most families below the poverty line. One in six adults and thirty-three thousand children are infected with the HIV virus. Longevity is only thirty six years of age. Malaria is the biggest killer of man, most deaths occur in children under the age of five in Sub-Sahara Africa. Lack of safe drinking water increases the risk of diarrhoea, which can be fatal in infants.
The Butterfly Tree runs at number of health programs in rural clinics, which receive very little government funding. The most crucial are Malaria prevention to outreach communities providing mosquito nets and malaria testing kits as well as educational workshops. HIV/AIDS prevention, encourages people to be tested in order to know their status; support, counselling and treatment are also available. A number of children have received funding for operations, special diets, medication and physiotherapy.
Over twenty thousand people are dependent on the funding and medical supplies we provide to three rural clinics at Mukuni Health Centre and Katapazi and N’songwe clinics. We work with highly qualified government employed medical staff and have arranged for experienced volunteers to assist at the clinics and hospital in Livingstone. Our support is vital – without it these vulnerable people would have very limited medical services.
The only way to reduce the HIV/AIDS statistics is through education - one in six adults in Zambia are infected with the HIV virus. Every family is infected or affected. Our aim is to target school pupils so that they can be the…
The Butterfly Tree has initiated HIV and AIDS Prevention projects to fight the pandemic. A feeding program to help prevent mother to child transmission replacing breast milk with formula, the first to be initiated in Zambia – all participating infants are free of HIV. AIDS…
According to the World Health Organization half of the world’s population are at risk of malaria. While there are four parasites that can cause malaria in humans, Plasmodium falciparum is by far the most deadly and common, this strain is prevelant in…
In June 2008 The Butterfly Tree opened a maternity clinic to provide a safer place for the delivery of babies. The health authorities advise women to come to the clinic rather than have traditional home births. All woman who are pregnant and wish to use these facilities have…
In 2011 Mutsa Marau joined The Butterfly Tree and wrote a program to help alleviate new cases of HIV amongst the rural communities we work in. ‘Catch me if you Can’ was first put into practice in 2011. Mutsa funded here own…
Latest Happenings WITH OUR Health Projects
Healthcare for Children
Charity funds treatment and operations
One of the most difficult decisions I have to make when I am in Zambia is to prioritise when it comes to funding treatment for sick children. Such is the demand that it is impossible to help every one of them. Over…
World Malaria Day 2013
Donations needed for mosquito nets
‘Despite recent progress, about half the world’s population still lives in malaria risk areas and malaria remains a leading cause of death amongst young children‘. Every 60 seconds a child dies from malaria Globally malaria is the biggest killer of man 86%…
World Malaria Day 2012
Malaria Prevention in Zambia
‘The theme for World Malaria Day 2012 – Sustain Gains, Save Lives: Invest in Malaria – marks a decisive juncture in the history of malaria control. Whether the malaria map will keep shrinking, as it has in the past decade, or be…
Newsletter April 2012
Huge Boost in Education
I have just returned from Zambia after three full weeks overseeing The Butterfly Tree projects and sourcing new ones. We are now covering areas some 100 kilometres from Livingstone, reaching out to villages in very remote areas where progress is being made…
HIV and AIDS Prevention
Education is the key
Virtually all the work of The Butterfly Tree revolves around the HIV and AIDS orphans. At Mukuni Village almost 50% of the school children have lost one or more parent putting a huge burden on elderly grandparents and guardians and its the…