A RASTRICK woman has set up a mercy mission to help African orphans.

Sophie Whittaker, 20, spent several months working at the Tanzania orphanage last year.

But now she has set up an urgent fundraising appeal, as a fire has wrecked part of the centre.

The blaze swept through part of the orphanage at Mwanza, on the shores of Lake Victoria over Easter.

It destroyed offices and, more importantly, the centre’s library, which contained thousands of books vital for the children’s education.

Now Sophie, of Field Lane, is hoping to build up a new collection of books and computer materials and ship them out to Africa, before her return there in the near future.

Sophie, a former pupil at Calder High School at Mytholmroyd, Halifax, spent three months at the centre while on a gap year in Africa.

She said: “I had always wanted to go to Africa and volunteered for the Tanzania project.

“Whilst in Tanzania, I worked at a Street Children Centre for boys that aimed to reintegrate the residential children of the centre back into society and back to their families if at all possible.

“The 40 boys, aged from five to 18, had lived on the streets of towns and cities across the country, often for years.

“Many of them walked for many miles to reach the centre, where they went to school every day.

“My role as a volunteer was to teach additional lessons when they returned in the afternoon, and also to provide a substitute parental role for their basic needs.

“I grew extremely attached to these boys, and was at the centre every day from nine in the morning until they went to bed at night.

“My daily duties included helping them with their homework, playing games, buying fruit and vegetables from the market, and generally making sure they had the care and attention they deserved.

“Some of the boys often became ill due to malaria, amoeba, worms, and some suffered from the serious disease of HIV and AIDS. They need a stable diet containing all their vital nutrients on a daily basis.

“The centre depends entirely on volunteer money and gets no government or other charity funding, therefore runs on a very tight budget to provide the necessities these boys need.”

Sophie added: “I was shocked to hear about the devastating fire at the centre which destroyed much of the building and the materials in it.

“Materials such as computers that were in the office, all the first aid and medical supplies, all the boys’ files/documents and records that will help get them back to their families were all destroyed, as were teaching resources and boys games.

“Luckily, nobody was hurt, and I am so relieved the fire did not start in the boys’ sleeping area.”

Sophie is now hoping to replace many of the ruined books and has appealed for people in the Huddersfield area to help.

She also wants to raise funds to help set up a day care centre for other youngsters in the area who are forced to live on the streets. She can be contacted on 07580 478008.