The Butterfly Kisses Foundation

The Rotary Club of Gros Islet has teamed up with a club in Switzerland, the Rotary Club Sion-Rhône, in a joint effort to assist a young charity founded by St Lucians and operating on the Island.

The Swiss Rotary Club which has become a partner in this project is located in a most scenic region of Switzerland, where one finds some among the highest mountains in Europe, with a few peaks reaching over 15,000 ft.

In spite of a distance of more than 4,500 miles separating the clubs, both have worked together to pledge a sum of $ 10,000.00 over two years to help the Butterfly Kisses Foundation, a charity organisation active in a number of public schools in St Lucia. In addition to financial assistance, Rotary will try to help the charity raise its visibility and attract a number of skilled volunteers.

The Butterfly Kisses Foundation was started in 2005 to assist, through the St Lucia secondary school system, underprivileged female students in need of basic necessities, self development support and empowerment. The Foundation aims at minimizing the impact that difficult circumstances faced by some teenage students can have on their education. A parallel goal is to prevent teenage pregnancy and the often heavily penalizing consequences it can have on the girls future.

The founders of Butterfly Kisses, Nadine and Mitchell Jn Baptiste, were only age 23 and 27 when they created the Foundation, which currently serves more than 80 girls in 6 secondary schools. Much of the support to attain the Foundation’s goals has come from the involvement of teachers and counsellors from those schools. The charity would like to continue to expand the number of schools it deals with.

Prestige Auto Holdings (PAHL Group) has been a most valuable corporate sponsor in recent years. The Foundation welcomes additional sponsors and donors, as well as interest from skilled professionals in the areas of mentoring and youth development programs.

For more information on the Butterfly Kisses Foundation, please visit their website at www.butterflykissesfoundation.com.