This is my mum, Diana. She‘s 76 years old and for the last few years she has been travelling to Rwanda to give her time to helping the Rwandan communities. She’s helped both children, adults and their families- teaching and supporting them through education. My mum just decided to do this off her own back- no help from charities or organisations. Each time she goes with several suitcases of educational books and materials, and stays for 2-3 months at a time. She lives in primitive conditions and each time she returns exhausted but happy and enthusiastic for her next trip.

My mum is there now. She’s due to come home next week. She found out on Thursday that a pipe has burst in her house due to the cold weather and flooded the whole place. It‘s inhabitable and she can’t go home.

Today we found out that her insurance company are refusing to cover her. They refuse to acknowledge that her neighbour was going around twice a week to check on the house and put the heating on etc. This means she has nowhere to go. This means she, myself and my brother have to find a way to organise and pay for repairing her home ourselves, and find her somewhere else to live. None of us have much money and this has left us both devastated and panicked.

And so I decided to try this. If you think you could contribute towards these upcoming costs of finding my mum somewhere to live and to help fix her home, we would be hugely grateful. I wouldn’t be doing this if we weren’t desperate- and we kinda are.

Thank you so much in advance. Anything- no matter how small- will help. I will provide any updates so you can know how you’ve helped

All our thanks, Sophie.