By Jane Kaye-Bailey | Founder
Zambia has 1.2 million orphans as a result of the HIV and AIDS pandemic. The Butterfly Tree has provided an orphan support program for orphaned children from remote villages since 2006.
Sadly it will be a whole generation before a significant difference can be made. In the meantime it is essential for these vulnerable children receive a sound basic education to enable them to be free of the poverty cycle.
River View School in the Sekute Chiefdom is just one of the many schools that receives support from The Butterfly Tree. This school is close to the border of Botswana. There is a high statistic of people living with HIV in this area due to it being a border town, where truckers can wait up to three days to cross the river. This puts a huge strain on the limited medical facilities and the NGO's working in the field on HIV prevention and support.
Less than a mile from River View School a new town of Kazungula is being developed. The school has 1,181 pupils of which 180 are orphans. Every week the school receives new pupils with the every increasing number of people coming to the area for work. There is a bridge being built across the river which will take six years to complete and has attracted workers from all over Zambia.
In 2013 we opened a special education unit at River View and most recently donated funds to complete a pre-school for the very young children. It is hoped that by giving this support it will help to protect these children from the dangers of HIV and the issues related to poverty.
Last month we were able to give a donation to River View School to buy a considerable amount of text books. The Ministry of Education recently changed the syllabus, but were unable to provide sufficient books for each class. This year we have also donated blankets, school jumpers and hats, knitted by the ladies of Inner Wheel Clubs UK, to provide warmth for the orphans during the cold winter nights between June and August.
Your support is greatly appreciated, but much more is needed for River View School.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
