Introducing Butterfly Space, our newest CRED partner

I’m sitting in the sunshine, at a lovely little guesthouse in Mzuzu town, from where I will catch the bus to Lilongwe tomorrow so that I can do the final part of the risk assessment for the CRED Malawi team trip that is taking place in July.

Until now my time in Malawi has been spent at Nkhata Bay, on the shores of Lake Malawi, visiting the project that will be the focus of the team trip: Butterfly Space, our newest CRED partner. And what a wonderful partner they are turning out to be – let me tell you more.

Butterfly Space started out as a backpacker-type of accommodation, set on the edge of Nkhata Bay town, and with its land running right down to the water’s edge of Lake Malawi, so that it boasts its own little beach. It still offers accommodation, and indeed that is where the team will be staying, but Butterfly is so much more than just accommodation now.

Two Brits who both now have Malawian residency run it: Josie manages the accommodation and sustainability side of things, and Alice is the driving force / passion / spirit behind all the community-based projects that spill out of Butterfly and into the surrounding town and villages and communities. And it is Alice who has been such an inspiration to be with these past couple of days.

Monday mornings sees Alice getting into the Butterfly truck and setting off on a one-hour drive around a well-worn route, picking up a variable number of disabled children and young adults who are out waiting for her. There are 30 registered in the Butterfly disabled group, although rarely more than 15 of them come – quite enough in the back of one pick up!

The route has been worked out not just to be efficient and logical, but also to ensure that some of the more able bodied are collected before the less able-bodied, so that the former can support the latter in the back of the truck. There are no nicely supportive car seats, or other specially designed travelling aids in Malawi – if you can’t sit up for yourself you have to rely on family and friends to hold you up, or else you stay lying down.

Once back at Butterfly Space, the group do some little activities – maybe a craft, or some stories, or singing etc – and whenever possible they will be joined by the members of the ‘Little Leapers’ homeschool group who meet at Butterfly Space each morning. Through this, prejudice and stigma against disability is being gradually broken down, and the disabled group get the chance to share an activity with the able bodied rather than being always ostracized.

The session finishes with a simple meal, and then the drive round starts again as everyone is dropped home. For many of the children, this is the only real time that they get to go out, so even just sitting in the truck with the wind and sun on their faces is a treat.

On another afternoon, Alice will accompany the prison chaplain into the local prison to help lead a Bible study for the in-mates followed by a creative session – art, or creative writing, or music etc. The prisoners testify to what a special time this is for them – to be able to work through some of their feelings and issues in creative form, but Alice is sure that she gets more out of it than any of them, as God is always so present at the meetings.

Yesterday afternoon, I’d been out visiting the school that the team are going to work at, and when I got back to Butterfly I found a group of ladies all sitting around the big table honing their tailoring skills with the Butterfly sewing machines. For these ladies to be able to develop such a useful life skill is wonderful – it is leading to income generation opportunities for them, and empowering them to be so much more self-sufficient. Some of the ladies are widows, some are raising grandchildren, and some are HIV+ve and so need sound nutrition to ensure the medication works well.  The combination of access to an opportunity to earn money, plus the dignity of having a skilled job, of being empowered, of being able to afford food and so gain health benefits, of being able to feed the family – so many ripple effects from Alice and Butterfly having the vision to set up the ladies group – God can take the little we offer and turn it into something big every time if we will just trust it to Him as Alice has done with this.

Other projects on the books at Butterfly include a vocational training centre for the disabled, a youth group for the local young people, a nursery school that has accessible prices for those who can’t afford mainstream prices and links with several primary schools that are serving communities living in rural poverty.

And then there are the placements that Alice coordinates for an ongoing stream of young adults who come to spend weeks or months at Butterfly Space – as part of a gap year, or a sabbatical from work etc- developing their own skills, learning about themselves, using their professional qualifications, discovering their calling….living out the strapline that CRED applies to its own work of ‘transformation through participation’.  Butterfly and CRED are clearly on the same page!

That’s just a snapshot of a very impressive and inspirational place in Malawi, run by a very incredible and amazing young woman. If asked about her motivation – Alice would say she is just doing what feels right, just trying to be do her bit to make the world a better place.

Me – I’d say she is living out Matthew 26 in a wonderful, self-less, Christ-centred way. And I’d say she is demonstrating in no uncertain terms how to love God with all your heart, strength and soul, and to love you neighbours as you love yourself.

Oh, and did I mention she also has a wonderful Malawian husband and two gorgeous girls age 2 and 7, so she is fitting in wife and mother as well!!!! Definitely a lady worth praying for – that she will be blessed as she is a blessing to others.