I am just about to leave for Zambia and could not go without posting our exciting news. I am delighted to announce that for this financial year our fundraising efforts have passed the quarter of a million pounds (US400,000) mark – our most successful year to date! This has mainly been achieved by the enormous grant awarded from Jersey Overseas Aid Commission to build three new schools in Matengu, Silelo and Malima villages – all some fifty miles from Mukuni.

A further donation from Just a Drop will enable us to build a bore hole at Libala Basic School which was was closed last year, by the education authorities, due to lack of safe drinking water. It is sad to think that these pupils have been deprived of education for almost six months. Water is an essential part of life, one of our aims is to provide safe clean drinking water for all the schools and villages we operate in. This donation also includes two additional double pit-latrines for Mukuni Basic School. Sanitation is a huge problem in rual communities where many people rely on the bushes. Schools that have insufficient latrines can be closed down.

Fundraising: Water is life – dried stream Mukuni Chiefdom

We  have a number of current fundraisers who deserve recognition: Brendan Mission is raising £10,000 to build a music centre at Mukuni to create awareness of  orphans and HIV/AIDS prevention which will be used for concerts, drama and worshops. On the 1st March Brendan is hosting a Music Earth Rise event in London; if you live in the area please go along. Margaret and Casey from Oregon have raised funds for a goats’ milk project to support our under fives’ feeding program, which replaces breastmilk in HIV positive mothers. Next month will see University College London supporting our orphan sponsorship and malaria prevention  programs. Members of their Global Development Initiatives Society have selected The Butterfly Tree to be recipients of their annual ‘One World Week’ fundraiser.

Recipient of the orphan sponosrship program – Mukuni Village

We are delighted that so many people are giving up their time to provide vital funds for our work in Zambia and are grateful to everyone for donating time and funds to help us. Without this support we could not have achieved so much. Thousands of orphaned and vulnerable children are now receiving an education, have access to safe clean drinking water and improved health facilites. If you would like to get involved, sponsor an orphan or fundraise for The Butterfly Tree all the details are on the website or for further information contact jane@thebutterflytree.org.uk Last year Facebook featured ‘our story’ to go out to their 500,000 million users – please join The Butterfly Tree community page so that we can get further recognition from Facebook.