I have just returned from Zambia after a three-week trip to check on the orphans, the schools we are building, and to see first-hand the impact that the severe drought, caused by El Niño is having on rural communities. Our priority, as always, is to ensure that the orphans and vulnerable children on our orphan support programme have sufficient food, and to check on their progress.
The first trip was to visit Ngandu primary school where we have been focusing on reducing the number of teenage pregnancies and providing extra textbooks. Far too often I see pupils learning solely from a blackboard instead of having their own textbooks, which are essential for homework and exam revision. The testimonial below is from Edwin Sililo, Head Teacher, Ngandu Primary.
‘The pupil-book ratio has tremendously improved to 2 pupils to 1textbook. Self-research and discovery methods using new textbooks. Additionally, the books added to the value of quality education.’ ‘As regards pregnancies – Peer education workshops were conducted, the prevalence of teenage pregnancies among girls was high. With the peer lessons initiated by The Butterfly Tree among girl children, this year 2023, the school has only recorded one pregnancy. They also helped girls and boys from the risk of contracting sexual transmitted diseases.’ Make a Medic, a UK charity provided funds for the peer education workshops and for the provision of textbooks.
A new primary school at Bbombe Lyangoma will open at the start of the school year in January 2025. A 1×2 classroom block and toilets have been completed and the facility will shortly have a teacher’s house. A teacher’s flat at Singwamba Primary school is currently under construction, which is desperately needed as most teachers leave the school due to distance and lack of accommodation. I drove 360km, of which 120km was off-road, to reach the school where we received a wonderful welcome from pupils, the choir, and traditional dancers.
At Kamwi Primary school I caught up with Elvis and Vincent. Celebrating their 14th birthday last month, the ‘Kamwi twins’, they are now in grade 7. Sadly, their mother and sister died during childbirth. Since 2010 The Butterfly Tree has sponsored the welfare and education of these vulnerable boys who are looked after by their grandmother.
I also visited three of the secondary schools developed by the charity, Mukuni, Musokotwane and Riverview. Pupils are preparing for their examinations including grade 12, after which they will have completed their education. More schools have received boreholes (wells) this year due to the drought. These include Kamusiku, Katondo, Manono, Masmu Muyumu, Siamuya, Sianjangulu, Luwe, Muule, Service Centre and Mulindi Primary and Community schools, and the newly constructed secondary school at Nguba.
The impact of the severe drought was apparent everywhere I travelled, especially in the rural areas where communities are subsistence farmers, relying on home grown food and income-generation from selling crops and vegetables. I drove to four areas where we were distributing 25kg bags of ground maize in Musokotwane, Sekute and Mukuni Chiefdom. One of our local volunteers organised the distributions for Nyawa and Moomba.
In 2019 I saw the water and food shortages when Zambia was suffering from a drought, but nothing can compare with the one that is happening this year. I have never seen the Zambezi River so low, not the Victoria Falls so dry. In Livingstone people are hard-hit with the reduction of power but they have access to food and water. Whereas in the villages people have no food other than wild fruits and are having to walk long distances in search of water.
We have installed 27 boreholes this year with a further five scheduled for next week, including Mukamba village, in Nyawa where I stopped to take a look at a well where children and teenagers were getting water. I was horrified to see a girl precariously balancing on a log while filling a bucket with murky water. This is their only source of drinking water.
The good news is that El Niño, deemed to be the fifth worst in history, has now ended and with the rainy season imminent it is predicted that is will be plentiful!
The support we have received this year, especially from the Overseas Aid and Development Commission of Guernsey, Nick Bousliman, Give a Hand and the Murphy Family Foundation, has been truly amazing and has enabled us to reach out to more rural areas where there are orphans and vulnerable children, and to provide emergency food relief, food security and the provision of clean water.
Jane Kaye-Bailey
Founder
