{"id":12322,"date":"2017-04-06T07:22:40","date_gmt":"2017-04-06T07:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/?p=12322"},"modified":"2017-04-07T16:55:47","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T16:55:47","slug":"travel-philanthropy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/2017\/travel-philanthropy\/","title":{"rendered":"Travel Philanthropy"},"content":{"rendered":"

From its concept in 2006 one of my aims was that The Butterfly Tree would to attract Travel Philanthropists from all over the world. The area where we are based in Zambia is close to one of the most magnificent sites, not just in Africa, but on the planet. Discovered by David Livingstone in 1855, the Victoria Falls<\/a>, know locally as the Mosi-oa-Tunya (‘the smoke that thunders’) is the world’s largest\u00a0sheet\u00a0of falling water.<\/p>\n

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The Mighty Victoria Falls\u00a0in March<\/p><\/div>\n

The Victoria Falls\u00a0is 1708 metres wide with a maximum drop of 108 metres. 50 million litres of water per minute drops from the Zambezi River<\/a>, the fourth longest river in Africa, crossing through Zambia, Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique before reaching the Indian Ocean. This spectacular site attracts tourists from around the globe and it is largely due to this phenomenon that we have enticed a number of travel philanthropists and volunteers to work with us on our projects.<\/p>\n

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The Zambezi River at the edge of the Victoria Falls<\/p><\/div>\n

Last month I\u00a0was in Zambia\u00a0to host a group from Canada and Australia, led\u00a0by Marilee and Grant Gibson, who I met when they were visiting the area in 2012. Ever since\u00a0the couple have been regular fundraisers for our cause. In March this year they brought with them a team of retired doctors, nurses and teachers to volunteer at\u00a0Mukuni School and Health Centre, as well as donating funds for mosquito nets,\u00a0school desks and text books. After this experience they pledged further support.<\/p>\n

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Canadian and Australian volunteers watch the National Youth Day performances<\/p><\/div>\n

John Staab, from Motive Real Estate, Texas also arrived to see the construction\u00a0of\u00a0the community houses, which his company is funding. For every house that is sold John\u00a0donates a community house for the elderly or widows, looking after orphans. In the past nine months John has donated funds for seven houses with two more on the way.<\/p>\n

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John Staab lending a hand to the thatchers – Mukuni Village<\/p><\/div>\n

For\u00a0young people in Mukuni and other rural villages the challenges are abundant. Lack of education, disease, unemployment and poverty are some of the main issues. We have sponsored hundreds or orphans in education, a number of them are now in college or employment. For those who have left school and aim to\u00a0seek further education volunteering is vital in helping them to gain confidence and experience.\u00a0We now have a very powerful group, formerly trained\u00a0under Meet Mutsa’s ‘Catch me I’m a Butterfly’ project, actively involved in helping to make a difference.<\/p>\n

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Mukuni Youth Empowerment Group<\/p><\/div>\n

Now known as the\u00a0Mukuni Youth Empowerment Group the members recently\u00a0received\u00a0tremendous support from donor\/volunteer Leah Black. An experienced youth worker, Leah, spent two months further training this dedicated group of young people, to become mentors and coaches in matters concerning HIV prevention, risk taking, menstrual hygiene and alcohol abuse. Now the group can confidently mentor the orphans and advance the workshops they perform in schools.<\/p>\n

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Leah Black directed\u00a0an event for National Youth Day<\/p><\/div>\n

From Dubai we welcomed Katie Bezou and Katerina Player, who raised a considerable amount of funds to purchase school supplies and equipment for Mukuni Primary Section. Katie is currently teaching in the pre-school, while Katerina is helping out in the special education class, which we built in 2011.<\/p>\n

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Mukuni Special Education Unit constructed in 2011<\/p><\/div>\n

This week Tracy and Charlie Flavell arrived in Mukuni. Charlie’s wish, for his 18th birthday, was to paint a classroom for orphans. His mother Tracey offered Charlie the chance to travel to Zambia to fulfil his wish – instead of receiving presents his family and friends donated funds to paint the classroom and to purchase school text books. Tracey will be working with bereaved children and Charlie will be teaching and painting!<\/p>\n

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Young Orphans Sponsored by The Butterfly Tree<\/p><\/div>\n

These travellers have donated not only their time, but\u00a0a considerable amount of money.\u00a0This has given a huge boost\u00a0to the local\u00a0schools and clinics at Mukuni, Kamwi, River View and Singwamba. Travel philanthropy is a two-way objective, it not only gives you an opportunity to visit a developing country, but it can offer an incite into the lives of indigenous people, which can be\u00a0a rewarding and often a life-changing experience. In 2006 I was\u00a0a traveller to the Victoria Falls and became a philanthropist. I would like to thank all those who have followed in\u00a0my footsteps!<\/p>\n

Jane Kaye-Bailey<\/p>\n

Follow us on Facebook<\/a> and Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From its concept in 2006 one of my aims was that The Butterfly Tree would to attract Travel Philanthropists from all over the world. The area where we are based in Zambia is close to one of the most magnificent More details ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[57,80,56,105,87,1,86],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12322"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12322"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12355,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12322\/revisions\/12355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}