My recent trip to Zambia – a combination of sorrow, adventure, excitement and joy. With a number of new projects to initiate and plans to oversee the existing programs, I was in for a hectic three weeks. Unfortunately unexpected heavy rains hampered our schedule during the first week, many outreach villages were inaccessible with some houses being submerged. The Butterfly Tree was able to supply blankets and clothing for some of displaced people. The adventure – getting stuck in the mud in the middle of the bush!
My sorrow – when I see children dropping out of school due to lack of funds. Hunger, tattered clothing and bare feet are common in all remote communities. Many children are in need of medical care but their parents are too poor to send them to hospital. Once again the charity has paid for several children to have operations and treatment. A number of offers to sponsor an orphan has arisen from travellers who I escorted on tours of Mukuni Village and additional donations came from visitors to the region.
George, Crystal, Lillian & TY2 Libala Basic School Pupils
Excitement – with so many events taking place I hardly to where to start! To begin with I distributed stationery and materials, to six schools, kindly donated by the BFSS. Much of my time was spent setting up the six projects funded by a grant from JOAC. The projects include the construction of five classrooms, two teachers houses, ten pit-latrines and a staff house for a clinic. The Besom has also donated funds to build an additional classroom for children with special needs. Joy – came in the form of seeing the pupils from Kamwi Basic School pumping safe, clean water from the bore hole we installed thanks to a donation from Just a Drop.
The pleasure of learning that all the babies on our under-fives’ feeding program have been tested free of HIV, was very humbling. The malaria support from Saga Charitable Trust enabled us to buy mosquito nets and testing kits. There have been no reported cases of malaria in the areas of distribution. We have provided many schools with feeding programs, adding seeds to grow maize to enhance this project. The first of our high school leavers have been unable to secure employment, therefore we have provided a self-sustaining income-generating activity. A group of pupils who were on our sponsorship program have been given the chance to set up a school shop. They will be making the school uniforms, selling stationery and materials; currently everyone has to go into Livingstone to purchase these items adding unneccessary costs.
Jane amongst pupils from N’songwe New Bore Hole for Kamwi School
Local support continues from Sun International and Stanley Safari Lodge with a new offer from Tongabezi Lodge. The excitement continued and highlight of the entire trip was to produce a charity song to raise funds and awareness for these vulnerable people. ‘TY2‘, one of Zambia’s top musicians volunteered his time, inviting fellow artist Crystal Shaun, George Mukwita and Mukuni’s very own Lillian Mweene, one of the pupils sponsored by The Butterfly Tree, to be included in the song entitled ‘Change for the Better‘. It will be launched on 25th April for World Malaria Day and will be on sale from our website and also from Basement Crew, who are helping to promote the charity and to market the song. This is a great opportunity to raise funds and awareness – I wish to thank all those concerned for their hard work in making this possible. Details of how to purchase of copy of this CD will shortly be posted.
Warmest regards,
Jane Kaye-Bailey
Founder & Chairman
