An Angus teenager has spoken of the life-changing experiences he encountered while working at an orphanage in Kenya.
Alasdair Bird, 19, spent the start of 2013 working as a volunteer with the Santana Charitable Trust (Sanchat) in the town of Gilgil in South Western Kenya.
The organisation was started by Mary Coulson in 2008 along with her late husband Terry, who had both moved to Kenya more than 50 years ago.
Sanchat’s main function is to run the Restart Orphanage, which looks after the abandoned children of the town, many of whom suffered greatly during the violence and destruction that erupted in the wake of the 2007 Kenyan presidential elections.
Alasdair told The Courier: “There are over 100 children at the Restart, with the ratio being 10 boys to every one girl.
“This is due to the fact that young girls will be turned to prostitution by their families in order to raise income, while boys cost more to keep and cannot generate this income.”
The streets of Gilgil are rife with drugs, prostitution and violence, which create dangerous cracks through which children can easily fall or dragged into.
Restart attempts to plug those gaps by offering education, treatment and friendship as an alternative to the life of crime children are forced into.
Alasdair said his time at the orphanage has filled him with a desire to fight injustice and hopes the work of the charity can make a difference to the lives of the children it looks after.
“The streets are a rough life. Many of the children are sexually or physically assaulted by strangers,” he said.
“I have seen first-hand how this place can heal. It can save broken children from the battle of survival and give them an aspiration for the future.
“Mary has estimated that each child costs roughly £1,000-a-year to keep. That may sound like a lot of money but it is roughly £3 a day.
“I have seen happiness light up faces of these children as they get a treat of meat, which they only get once or twice a year.
“There are other instances as well when they are dancing and singing and the same pleasure crosses their face as would cross any other child.
“I sit here asking you that if there are ever any trustworthy causes where all your money will go to the right place then this is one of them.
“Of course I have I bias, but I ask people to try to see through it and see what we can achieve if we support this worthy cause.”
For more information, visit sanchat.org.