The Butterfly Tree is supporting children and vulnerable people in rural areas of Zambia impacted by COVID-19. Two thirds of the population live on less than $2 per day and cannot afford to buy soap, masks or stockpile food. To protect communities where we work we urgently need donations for rural health clinics and schools to purchase hand sanitizing gel, soap and masks for medical staff and pupils. Food shortages are widespread as tourism has come to a standstill and the economy is weak.
COVID-19 has reached Zambia and the medical facilities in rural areas are inadequately equipped to deal with the coronavirus pandemic. The health centres do not have soap, hand sanitizing gel nor disinfectant. The poverty levels are so high that people are unable to meet the hygiene standards of washing their hands with soap. The Southern and Western Provinces are still suffering from food shortages after the worst drought 30 years, and people are hungry.
This project will provide vital support for medical staff in rural health centres. It will help to improve the hygiene levels for both the facilities and the communities to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. With these measures in place it will help to prevent cross-infection, which could overwhelm the medical staff who are treating people with HIV and AIDS, malaria and TB on a normal daily basis. Providing bags of maize will solve the problem until crops can be successfully harvested.
Reducing the number of people infected with COVID-19 will have a huge impact on the rural communites and the Zambian people. The country has been suffering from an economic downturn in recent years therefore, the sooner COVID-19 can be controlled the less burden there will be for the government and its people. It can help to reduce the number of lives lost, prevent starvation and improve hygiene standards in rural health centres and households.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
