A FERNDOWN woman is off on a mercy mission to help 450 orphans in a Kenyan slum where 1.2million people are squeezed into 600 squalid acres.

Helen Masters leaves for the Kibera, just outside the country’s capital Nairobi, on Thursday, October 13, with new pairs of shoes for all the children.

Working with the UK Lunchbowl Network charity, she will be feeding the youngsters hot dinners and trying to improve their lives.

They face malnutrition, abuse, rape, child sacrifice and disease.

Mrs Masters, 45, got involved in January, inspired by the Vicar Laurie Clow at Hampreston All Saints Church.

The congregation runs events and works with schools to raise awareness of the youngsters’ plight.

The mum-of-two teenagers said: “It is going to be heart-wrenching.

“It’s the largest slum in sub-Saharan Africa. I’m going with two others and we’ll have an armed guard every day. We will have to be very careful.

“Laurie and his wife have been out before, and when they came back with stories of how things were, I thought: this is what I should be doing.”

Mrs Masters, of Martins Drive, added: “The biggest thing for me was knowing that 15,000 children die every day, and 50 per cent do not get to their fifth birthday.”

She’s appealing for donations of underwear for two to 14-year-olds before October 10, to go with the two suitcases of shoes she has collected.

Fundraising events include a fashion show at St Mary’s Church, in Church Road, Ferndown, on Wednesday, October 5, and a Dogs Without Collars gig on Friday, October 21.

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