VOLUNTARY work in a foreign country would seem like fun to most teenagers and it was for Amy Lithgow - but it also opened her eyes to some sad and stark sights.

The 19-year-old, who lives in Carisbrook Drive, Winsford, has just returned from a year in Zimbabwe working in an orphanage where 60 per cent of the 136 children had HIV.

She not only witnessed poverty and sickness but also had to deal with the trauma of death in children she became close to at the orphanage.

Amy explained: "The most difficult experience during my stay in Zimbabwe was when a child in the orphanage died.

"Some were really sick with HIV and going to their funerals was upsetting.

"Also taking the children to hospital was awful because there were men and children lying outside, some bleeding to death.

"People have to pay for medical care over there and they can't afford it. So when we complain about the NHS here, we don't realise how lucky we really are.

"But there were also the good times. One of my best memories was taking some children to a rural village for five days.

"We stayed in mud huts and had to catch and kill chickens for food. Then we roasted them over a fire."

As a voluntary worker for Project Trust, Amy was responsible for entertaining children aged up to 16 at the orphanage in Bulawayo with sport, games, art and craft. She also took a kindergarten class in the afternoon.

Working most days, the only holidays she really had were at Easter and Christmas when she hitchhiked across Zimbabwe.

Amy said: "We would only have to wait five minutes before somebody picked us up. It was great.

"People would give us a lift because we were white girls and I suppose we stood out. They said it was dangerous for us to be hitching lifts but we never got into any trouble.

"Some lads we knew were doing the same thing and sometimes they had to wait nine hours for a lift."

Amy is now set to begin a teacher training course at Durham University next Monday.

But she has not forgotten her friends in Zimbabwe. She has sponsored one orphan, three-year-old Mafesibonginkosi Moyo, and she intends to return one day.

"I would love to return to see the children again, perhaps when I've finished university," she added.

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