{"id":9216,"date":"2013-09-04T19:55:46","date_gmt":"2013-09-04T19:55:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/?p=9216"},"modified":"2013-09-05T13:08:48","modified_gmt":"2013-09-05T13:08:48","slug":"orphan-sponsorship-in-zambia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/2013\/orphan-sponsorship-in-zambia\/","title":{"rendered":"Orphan Sponsorship in Zambia"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is difficult to comprehend the scale of the decimation caused by the HIV and AIDS<\/a> pandemic in Zambia. With a population of barely more than 14 million the nation has over 700,000 orphans, primarily as a result of HIV and AIDS. Virtually all of the Butterfly Tree’s work revolves around the orphans and we strive to give them hope for a better future. Our aim is to provide a sound, basic education for as many rural children as funds permit. It is not possible for every child to be accepted on our orphan sponsorship<\/a> program as there are so many, but we can help in other ways by improving the education facilities in these remote schools and helping them to generate sustainability.<\/p>\n

\"9672083639_360322beb5\"<\/a>

Twin brothers Siakuba and Aaron sponsored orphans<\/p><\/div>\n

Creating global awareness is paramount – the poverty levels are extreme. Under normal circumstances Zambian families can support themselves by living a simple lifestyle, but when they have the addition of several orphans to feed and educate they are pushed below the poverty line. Two thirds of the entire nation lives on less than \u00a31 ($1.5) per day.\u00a0Our aim is to develop sustainability in rural schools and communities so that every orphan has a chance to be educated.<\/p>\n

\"9675224476_6f76f5a044<\/a>

Every child has a right to be educated<\/p><\/div>\n

We have many people helping us to achieve this through fundraising<\/a>, sponsorship<\/a> and volunteering<\/a>. Last month we welcomed Thomas Mills High School, whose pupils raised funds to build a sustainable school shop for Mukuni Basic School. Camping out in the classrooms, two groups totalling thirty pupils from Suffolk, set about building the facility, which will be used to make and sell uniforms as well as school supplies. Students assisted in the classrooms and participated in creative activities and on the sports ground.\u00a0Furthermore in July we had Kayleigh Blake and Vicky Higgs, two UK volunteers, assisting at Mukuni Basic School<\/a>,\u00a0as well as Saga Volunteer<\/a> Travellers Gill Waterton and Richard Reid, who have also just completed a month’s volunteering. Their support and generosity was invaluable to grades seven and nine who will be sitting exams later in the year.<\/p>\n

\"IMG-20130731-00626\"<\/a>

Students form Thomas Mills High School<\/p><\/div>\n

While it is essential for these vulnerable children to complete their education it is not always possible to seek employment once they leave school. Mukuni Village<\/a> is close to the mighty Victoria Falls<\/a>, a major tourist destination, but\u00a0there are not enough jobs for everyone and unemployment is high. To take advantage of the surroundings and the abundance of visitors to the area we are initiating an Ecotourism<\/a> project. In July I visited Zambia with Jonathan Sedo, an Ecotourism consultant from Costa Rica, who is submitting a project plan to The Butterfly Tree. Volunteer, Emma Kennedy, an International Development student will assist with the initial stages of the project. This is a great opportunity for Mukuni orphans and school leavers to be involved in an income-generating enterprise.<\/p>\n

\"9671996553_7c387eb72a\"<\/a>

School leavers with Jonathan Sedo learning about Ecotourism<\/p><\/div>\n

The orphan sponsorship<\/a> program has been running since 2006, many of the children have now reached high school, some have already completed school whilst others are just starting. We have extended the program to help children in the following schools: Mukuni, N’gandu, Kamwi, Siamasimbi and Ndele and many more need help. If you would like to sponsor an orphan<\/a> please click on the link.<\/p>\n

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

It is difficult to comprehend the scale of the decimation caused by the HIV and AIDS pandemic in Zambia. With a population of barely more than 14 million the nation has over 700,000 orphans, primarily as a result of HIV More details ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9234,"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":[57,80,105,70,86],"tags":[41,9,24,22,23,32,11],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9216"}],"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=9216"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9248,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9216\/revisions\/9248"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thebutterflytree.org.uk\/pages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}