Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

This month I am volunteering at Footprints Orphanage in the Shimba Hills in Kenya.  Last year when visiting Kenya and Rwanda, I was overwhelmed at the extreme poverty and hopelessness of a good life for the children through no fault of their own, other than being born into poverty.  I came back to Australia determined to return to work in a school there to use my skills as an experienced teacher to help these children in some small way, knowing I can't change the world, but I can make just a teeny difference.  Destiny had a part to play and I have now ended up volunteering at Footprints Orphanage, which I now believe was meant to happen. 

Kerry Watson, from Stretton, England, took a career break from her job at Thomson Travel to set up the Footprints Orphanage and since October 2009 has been working fulltime at the centre in the remote Shimba Hills region of Kenya.

Now, the many months of hard work by Mrs Watson and other volunteers are bearing fruit as the orphanage begins to establish itself as a home for children who have already had to face unimaginable trauma in their young lives.  They have just celebrated the first birthday of the orphanage opening.

The newest resident is two-year-old Dorothy, whose tale is particularly tragic.

Her mother, aged just 14, gave birth to the child after being raped and died two months after she was born.

Footprints trustee Kevin Curtis said: “Every single one of the children who come to the orphanage has a story of that kind to tell.

“People over here can’t imagine the lives these children have had. We give them a ray of hope for the future, provide medical care and help them get education, which is the way they can get themselves out of the abject poverty into which they were born.

“You can’t put into words what it feels like to see it up and running. You have to be there and to look around. A wave of emotion just hits you because you realise the difference Footprints is making.”

The orphanage already boasts a number of success stories, notably that of Baby George, whose mother died after giving birth to him and whose grieving father himself died after falling down a pit while trying to find his way home through the Kenyan bush.

The infant was four months old and just 3kg when he was brought to Footprints but now, just shy of his first birthday, has been nourished back to health and weighs in at a healthy 13kg.

Mr Curtis said: “We hadn’t planned to take in a baby but Kerry rang me and asked what we should do. We both agreed we should help him because if we’d just left him he would have been dead within days.

“He’s now a bonny baby, has started to crawl and is causing chaos. He’s one of the great successes of Footprints.”

The centre currently receives around £800 a month in donations but has running costs of £2,000. It is seeking people willing to make a regular donation of even the smallest amount.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.  Give up buying your lunch once a week, cut down on cigarettes and donate that money each week, or just give a once off donation for the sake of giving.  We have such a fortunate life in Australia, we have NOTHING to complain about.

I will be posting some photos and on my blog once there (providing I have an internet connection while there) otherwise will do when back on Australia.  This is just the beginning of a long journey....  The website of Footprints Orphanage for you to have a look at the fabulous work Kerry is doing is http://www.footprintsorphanage.com

I will have my volunteering blog up and running in a couple of days.  Take a look at my other travel blog - livin the dream. The website for my blog is http://www.travelpod/members/boothy58

Thank you once again.... I look towards the future, because that is where I'm going to spend the rest of my life - let's give these kids a future, a 2nd chance at life.