Students helped an orphan find a place in school on a trip to Kenya.
The group of five 17-year-old Gold Sports Ambassadors shared their sporting skills with children and teachers in one of the largest slums in Africa.
But the highlight of the trip came when they managed to help an orphan get a place at the school they were visiting.
Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Schools Sports Partnership organised the trip to the charity-funded Spurgeon’s Academy in Kenya’s Kibera slum. Gold Sports Ambassadors Amy Sturgess, Katy McKenna, Phillipa Smith, Sam Yates and Tom Anderton spent the week teaching leadership skills to the teachers and various sporting activities to the children along with trip leaders Paul Earnshaw and Becky Coleman.
Katy’s mother, Lesley McKenna, of Second Avenue, Accrington, said: "During their stay they visited the homes of some of the pupils.
"This was quite an eye-opening experience and one that none of the team will forget.
"Families with nine or ten children lived in a room, smaller than most of our bathrooms at home, and the smell was awful with no sanitation."
However, the students were able to make an instant difference to one little boy’s life.
Lesley said: "There was a little boy who was hanging around the team bus.
"It turned out Isaac was an orphan and had a speech impediment and struggled to speak."
There was a special needs school nearby that he could go to if funds allowed so the team decided to see if they could sponsor Isaac to attend the school.
After three days everything was sorted including getting an assessment and a referral and Isaac started school this month.
