The improvements in education made by The Butterfly Tree over the past two years at Mukuni Village is having a positive effect on the community.

With the addition of Mukuni high school, now in it’s second year, pupils are able to complete grades ten to twelve of their education with a far better prospect of finding employment and with the boom in the Zambian tourist industry more positions will be available to school leavers.

Photo: Pupils have made these bricks for the high school science laboratory

The addition of Mukuni pre-school totally funded by The Butterfly Tree now has 198 children attending three classes throughout the day. With very little entertainment in these remote villages young children can learn to read and write and speak English at a much earlier age.

Having spent some time visiting a number of classes the standard of teaching is excellent. What is needed is funding to improve teaching facilities and purchase more materials. I was amazed to learn that children need nine exercise books each term, however the government only provide three, leaving the school to meet the shortfall. This is virtually impossible in the very remote areas where no outside aid is given.

Besides providing capital costs we are working with TME to provide educational DVDs on topics such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, when to have a baby, safe water – all issues that have a devastating impact on African communities. Our orphan sponsorship program is supporting over ninety children in education and the feeding program sponsored by Cunninghams has improved both the overall attendance and performance at Mukuni basic school and Mukuni high school.

The Butterfly Tree aims to provide the same support in other villages such as Ngandu and Kamwi, where we are raising funds for classrooms and teachers’ houses. I also visited a remote school at Katapazi, some thirty miles through bush from the nearst town of Livingstone. The school is without electricity and bore hole; children have to carry water some distance from the community centre, both the school and clinic are sadly lacking in facilities.