OKEHAMPTON resident Georgia Kelly recently returned from a trip to Kenya, having spent a month in the country carrying out voluntary work.

Former Okehampton College student Georgia, 18, lived in Muhaka Mbavu, carrying out a range of voluntary work. in the coastal province.

She stayed in the province throughout July, travelling with a friend from Exeter College on a gap-year programme called Camps International.

Among the hard work Georgia took part in while in Muhaka was the refurbishment of a nursery: 'A group of us pulled up the nursery floor as it was useless to anybody. We cleared rocks off the surfrace, then smashed concrete and dug six inches deeper, then levelled the floor out.

'Then we relayed the floor and concreted over. We also plastered the walls, and other members of the voluntary team painted it.

'I also carried out voluntary work at the elephant sanctuary in Mwaluganje, where we were linked with a school in the community.

'There was a nature trail built by the villagers, which kept getting destroyed by the elephants, so we planted trees to protect it.

'The road to the sanctuary was so poor it prevented some vehicles being able to drive down it.

'So I filled in pot-holes and levelled out patches of the road which we felt were the worst.'

Georgia connected with children while in Kenya: 'While doing project work, there were children helping us. One of these was a boy called Rashid, who I paid to go to school for a year at a cost of £7.

'After a day's work I went to the local school where I taught English and netball to the children. I also visited an orphanage, which opened my eyes to the extreme poverty in Africa. They had three toys between 35 children, and they were eating glucose powder for lunch to keep themselves going due to the lack of food.'

Georgia expressed thanks to Okehampton Rotary Club, Okehampton Inner Wheel, Okehampton Glass, Ross Campbell Contractors, Okehampton Educational Foundation, Eric and Ange Pengelly, Pauline Penna, and everyone who supported her fundraising to help go on the trip.