From the Chair…

Once again I am delighted to say that The Butterfly Tree has had a very successful year. I have been overwhelmed by the tremendous support we have received from all over the world and amazed that people from as far away as New Zealand chose to volunteer for our charity. We have advanced several more rural schools and initiated feeding programs as well as providing vital funds for malaria and HIV prevention. We are now reaching out to remote communities some 200 kilometers from our base at Mukuni Village, many of which receive virtually no other international aid.

Feeding Programme at Ng’andu School

Please follow the link to view the full Annual Report, Photos and Accounts: Annual Report & Accounts 2013-2014

Helping to improve the facilities in these remote schools has given the children hope of a better future. At the villages of Chuunga, Manyemumyemu and Muchimbale additional classrooms and teachers’ houses have been added to their schools. River View and Katapazi saw the completion of two special education units, adding to the two at Mukuni and Simango, the first of their kind in Zambian villages. Most rural children with special needs have no access to education.

Our largest school at Mukuni Village, with over one thousand pupils, has had an excellent year. The addition of two extra classrooms reduced the number of pupils per class and added extra teaching hours. A sustainable school shop providing uniforms, stationery and tuck, started making profits after just four months. A further school shop has been opened at Muchimbale. Lack of text books has always been a huge issue; ten schools received a substantial amount of books, this contributed to the fact that Mukuni Basic School got the best grade seven and nine examination results in the Kazungula District.

River View Basic School, Sikute Chiefdom

The boarding shelters at Mukuni were extended and bunk beds and mattresses donated. This has enabled pupils from outreach villages to forego the long daily walks to school and has also allowed those who live in extremely remote areas to attend a high school.

As always our orphan sponsorship is at the forefront. Children who have lost one or both parents are being helped with their education. With over 710,000 orphans nationwide it is imperative for them to not only receive basic education but also to learn about the dangers of HIV and AIDS. Mutsa Marau returned to Zambia to train more peer educators on HIV prevention and sexual health. A number of orphans have now completed school, five of them are being sponsored at teachers’ training college and one at an agricultural college.  Some of our orphans are now employed in security, customs and teaching.

The Butterfly Tree continues to provide funds for malaria prevention with the distribution of mosquito nets and educational workshops. This year Nyawe Chiefdom was the beneficiary. Sadly there has been a substantial increase in new cases of malaria throughout the Kazungula district due to lack of spraying and insufficient provision of nets. We are working with a UK corporate to bring two safe new products into Zambia for malaria prevention in the forthcoming months.

Mosquito Net Distribution for Malaria Prevention

Whenever possible we provide funds for sick children to be treated in hospital. We have built a women’s shelter at Mambova Health Centre and continue to support both maternity care and under-fives clinics. The CEF goat project funded by two of our US volunteers continues to provide goat’s milk for vulnerable infants and children.

Six community houses have been built for widows and the elderly looking after orphans with funding in place for four more. Initiating community projects is an essential part of development. Our aim is to create these for school leavers who cannot afford to go to college. In July I was accompanied by an Ecotourism consultant from Costa Rica, in view of setting up a sustainable project in Mukuni Village. This is a prime area, just seven kilometers from the renowned Victoria Falls and the perfect location to create an income-generating an enterprise for the educated school leavers.

Volunteers have come from all over the world to help us! Some taught at the Mukuni schools and worked at the clinic, while others, including two school groups, helped to paint classrooms and build community houses and a school shop. I am delighted to say that five of these volunteers have joined The Butterfly Tree team: Carolyn Howe, who now managers the volunteer programme, Emma Kennedy is to run the orphan sponsorship program and Jonathan Sedo, from Costa Rica, will develop the Ecotourism project. In addition Bob and Cindy Orr from New Jersey are to fundraise in the US. We are very grateful to all of them for offering their free time to support The Butterfly Tree.

Mukuni Sustainable School Shop Funded and Bluilt by Volunteers

It is mainly because of our wonderful volunteers that the charity has been able to achieve so much. It is an inspiration to me to have so much help from so many selfless people. I would like to thank David and Miranda, my fellow trustees, for serving on the board with me. I have to thank Ann, who does a remarkable job with the accounts. I am also grateful to Mutsa and Oscar for their support in HIV and malaria prevention respectively, and Frank, Margaret and Casey, our US volunteers have been a great support.

As always I am totally in awe of my amazing team in Zambia, most especially Mupotola, Martin and Presley and thank them for all that they have done for The Butterfly Tree and their community. The tireless commitment has enabled us to initiate water, food, health and education projects in remote areas in four Chiefdoms, spanning a radius of two hundred kilometers. Rosemary, Sibeso, Stain, Jacob and the ten women orphan representatives and the volunteer cooks have all contributed to our success. I would also like to thank Chief Mukuni for his counsel and the local tour operators, hotels and lodges, namely Sun International, who supports our work in Zambia.

Water Project – Muchambile Community School

We now have so many donors around the world that it is impossible to list them all. However I wish to express my gratitude to our major sponsor, the Jersey Overseas Aid Commission, have given us the opportunity to build entire new schools and clinics in these outreach areas. Our other major donors Saga Charitable Trust, Just a Drop, the British and Foreign School Society, and The Besom have also given us substantial funds over several years. Through grant aid their support has funded bore holes, malaria prevention, classrooms, vocational courses and health facilities. Corporate sponsors Cunninghams, Brady Italia, ENRC Marketing AG, Dative Studios and Black and White Accounting continue to generously support our cause. A special thanks to the BigGive, who doubled our donations through their Christmas Challenge and the Mukuni Village Fund, Australia, who sponsor fifty orphans.

In October a great opportunity arose when we were invited by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation to be listed as one of their charities. The forthcoming year has some exciting prospects in the making, most importantly the new malaria prevention projects and further development in rural schools.

Jane Kaye-Bailey

Chairman