Jemma Franses of Poole-based fundraising committee Kidzone Kenya met the inspiring orphaned and destitute girls helped by the charity on a trip to Nairobi

When I found out I’d been given a British Airways charity flight to Nairobi to visit the Kidzone Kenya Children’s Home in December 2012, my dear friend Kia went with her mother to Primark to buy 25 pairs of soft fluffy slippers.

She then gift-wrapped each pair with a few sweets and gave them to me to pack in my suitcase. Seven days later I emailed her these photos (look at their feet!) along with a short video clip of the children thanking her for their presents.

Inside the Children’s Home live 25 beautiful, accomplished, talented, appreciative young girls. When I arrived they had prepared a concert to greet me. They played their recorders and sang songs while peering over to where I was sitting to take a closer look at this new girl who’d come to visit them.Afterwards we sat around in a circle as I watched their faces light up while opening one of the many gifts from Kia, my mother and several of my friends.

As I presented my own gift I could hear the gasps as I lifted the lid of a box containing over 50 different nail varnishes. That certainly kept me busy all afternoon and they absolutely loved it. ‘Nairobi Nails’, with a different colour on each hand, is now the fashion sweeping the nation!

Everyone warned me the trip would be emotional: “Those poor children” they’d say. That and “Don’t drink the water!” Which admittedly I didn’t just to be on the safe side. However it was far from emotional. It was a real eye-opener. In those five days not one of the girls sat idle twiddling their thumbs which, bearing in mind they don’t have an iPad to fight over or a Wii to play games on, was simply inspirational.

When we couldn’t go swimming because of transport issues due to a grenade attack, not one of them sulked or whinged even though they’d been really looking forward to it.

Instead I sat and listened as they read their favourite books to me. Catherine and Martha loved knitting their scarves – they taught me how not to drop a stitch. Patricia, who’s seven years old, showed me how to speak Swahili and say ‘Jemma’ in sign language.

Mercy and Caroline were practising ‘Silent Night’ on their recorders and the older girls were either studying for their exams, braiding their hair or starting on the pedicures.

On meeting these children for the first time I would not have believed these were the same 25 girls who had been rescued from the slums. Reading their profiles prior to my trip and discovering that they had been living in a shack with drug-peddlers, their bellies swollen from kwashiorkor (a type of malnutrition), their bodies abused from cigarette burns and their parents, in most cases, nowhere to be seen, high on drugs or had died from HIV, I really didn’t know what to expect. Each of these children has a story that we wouldn’t even share with our own children for fear of giving them nightmares.

We at Kidzone Kenya – a fundraising committee based in Poole – are providing the sweetest bunch of young girls with a chance in life to create a future for themselves which once upon a time looked nothing but hungry, scary, lonely and bleak.

They may not have a mother to cuddle them or a father to protect them but they do have a team of kind, caring ladies who have created a home filled with love on a humble budget which, through our fundraising events, we are able to maintain. It’s a place which not only is giving them the education needed to improve their future, but more importantly somewhere safe and secure to sleep at night in a part of the world where kidnapping, rape and child abuse is rife.

When I stepped outside the grounds the reality of the situation really hit home. There were children drinking and bathing in rainwater-filled pot-holes in the streets. I was unable to walk anywhere as there had been three grenade attacks just a few hundred yards away which caused looting and riots between the Somalis and Kenyans.

It was only when I was outside the home that I felt vulnerable for the first time and I was able to see why we needed 24 hour security and why my parents were reluctant for me to go.

People often ask at our charity events “Why Kidzone Kenya?” It is true that there are many other charities that need help. Why this one?

Would you let your four-year-old child or grandchild wander the slums of Nairobi alone at night? No? … We wouldn’t either.

I didn’t need to see it to believe it, but now that I have I feel I’m in a better position to endorse our efforts and hopefully help many more children in this situation.

When you see what a difference a little effort on our part is making to those children’s lives, however small, it makes it all worthwhile.

  • To find out more about Kidzone Kenya join us on facebook.com/kidzonekenya kidzonekenya.org.uk ‘Hope for children’ registered charity no: 1041258