I have just returned from Zambia and yet again I am amazed by the resilience and spirit of these humble people. I have many stories to tell but I think the most touching of them all is the one about how an elderly man provides for his family. While driving through the bush I asked my husband to pull over and offer a lift to an old man baring two heavy sacks, tied to a pole, which he placed across his shoulders. I learnt that Davison Simolonga grew vegetables in Chise Village and then carried his sixty kilo load for twenty miles, twice a week, to Livingstone collecting just £6.50 per load. It was totally inhumane – he is 76 years of age! I offered him a donkey, the opportunity to provide The Butterfly Tree feeding program at Mukuni Basic School, a short distance from his home and to sponsor two of the children.
The orphan sponsorship has increased to 130. This program is vital to enable the orphans to complete their education. The high school, almost at the end of the second year, is expanding; currently we are rasing funds to add a science laboratory. We have plans to restore another classroom at Ngandu School. I drove to several very remote villages to discover that some children actually leave home at 5am to arrive for classes at Mukuni for 8am – the temperatures reach 40 degrees during October!
New teachers’ house Under-fives’ feeding progam
Two teachers and their families are happlily residing in the new accomodation we have built. The community housing project is increasing, a young disabled wood carver who sleeps in an open shelter, has been given priority for the next house before the start of the rainy season. Many old people cannot even afford the £10 needed to re thatch their roof, having lost their children through AIDS, there is no one to help them. The two projects we are running for HIV/AIDS are continuing to make a difference, many more women are coming forward tested and ones who are HIV positive can receive the formaula to replace breastfeeding through our under five’s feeding program.
Children in Chise Village Drinking water for Kafakwa
Once again Saga Charitable Trust, has given us substantial funding to assist the health facilities at Mukuni Clinic. We have started a project to imrove Katapazi Clinic, some 30 miles from Mukuni and the funding has been approved for three further bore holes from Just a Drop. Both Katapazi and Siamasimbi Schools are benefitting from our support, as are some twenty villages in the Mukuni Chiefdom. The website is attracting donors and volunteers from all parts of the globe: two nurses, a special needs teacher and a law graduate have been working at the school and health centre this summer.
Tourists, particularly from the UK and the USA, who have visited Mukuni Village, have boosted our funds offering generous donations after seeing first hand the need and the work of The Butterfly Tree. In Zambia we have support from Sun International, Stanley Safari Lodge, Safpar and SATS tour operator as well as the on going support from Exquisite Safaris who send philanthropic travellers to Mukuni Village. We have received a vast number of donated items from companies and individuals, there are far too many to name. Thank you once again to everyone who has supported The Butterfly Tree in any way – every little helps!
Jane Kaye-Bailey – Charity Founder
