I've made friends with a 12 year old girl called Glory. She was beautiful and very kind. She lived down the road from me. I visited her home one day because I had bought her some sweets. I walked into her compound to find no adults anywhere. Glory's little sister who was still a tiny baby was crawling naked on the dirty floor with broken slates cutting her legs. She then banged her head on the side of the wooden shack which was their home. She screamed and cried...

when i was in Kenya i witnessed a lot of animal cruelty. donkeys being whipped until they bled. Worked so hard under the blistering heat, up steep hills with no water and gasping for air. Young baby cows being whipped for no reason as their owner slowly strolls next to them. Their owners are holding them with rope as they slowly escort them. Whipping them as they go, like kicking a stone to pass the time. Friendly, intelligent and lonely dogs are tied up a...

Tony is my host family's nephew, my cousin. He is 5 years old and lives next door with his father, his cousin and grandmother. His mother passed away a few years ago. I knew something was wrong with tony the moment I met him. He always looks at the ground and never smiles. Whenever I gave him a hug or tried to cheer him up he always seemed so desperate for more attention. I never heard him speak one word for about 2 weeks! I asked his cousin Emily why he doesn't...

me and the other 29 volunteers all left the airport in a big bus. The driver blasted some wicked music as we drove through kenya's capital city, Niarobi. I passed huge, modern buildings which were strangely all empty! People were everywhere on the streets, just standing around or sitting on the floor.

In Nairobi I met a man called Oliver Gitau and his family. He told me about his life and asked me to tell people about him in England. He is married with 2 daughters ages 4 and 6. During the 2007 election violence he fled with his family to escape the fighting. His wife was gang raped and she got HIV. His daughter has HIV from breastfeeding. Oliver also has HIV from his wife. Oliver cannot work to support his family because he is too ill! The family are now in...