MORE than 40 young people from around Monmouthshire and Newport embarked upon the expedition of their lives to Kenya, Africa.

On July 18, 44 of the youngsters from King Henry VIII, Rougemont, Bassaleg, St Julians, Caerleon and Caldicot schools left for Kenya.

It took 10 months of fundraising where each young person had to raise around £2,000 each to take part. They organised auctions, car boot sales, sports competitions and many bag packing days at local supermarkets.

The group worked with the charity Moving Mountains whilst in Kenya and had four expedition leaders from Monmouthshire and Newport with them as well as a large number of Kenyan staff who work for Adventure Alternative the Expedition company they used for the trip.

The UK Expedition Leaders, Andy Hunt (Ask Education) Steven Hedley, Kerry Griffiths (Monmouthshire Youth Service) and Billie Prangley worked and met with the group in the build up to the expedition and whilst out in Kenya.

Here is a report from Duke of Edinburgh Award Development Officer, Steven Hedley.

"On arrival in Kenya the group travelled 11 hours to Western Kenya near Lake Victoria where they were to spend 10 days working and living in Ulamba Moving Mountains Orphanage and Community Centre. There they were joined by 80 Kenyan Explorer scouts and camped, cooked, ate and worked with them all day long. They organised fun sporting events and talent shows but also worked to physically build a New Early Child Development Centre within the orphanage and learned and were taught sex education and HIV awareness to the local community and Kenyan children.

On completing a very tiring but hugely emotional and rewarding 10 days at the orphanage the group moved on to one of the biggest physical and mental challenges they have ever experienced, climbing the second highest mountain in Africa, at 4985m (16,500ft) Mount Kenya Dwarfs the highest peaks in Britain.

Whilst half of the group took on the mountain challenge the other half travelled to the Samburu Game Reserve for a short break on Safari before they swapped over and took on the mountain.

For all of the group this would be the first time they have experienced high altitudes and serious hard days of walking up vertical bogs and scree slopes with monkeys, elephants and buffalo roaming around for between eight and sometimes 16 hours a day. All of the effort and pain they went through was swiftly forgotten when at 6.30am on day four they reached the summit of the mountain and saw the sun rise through the clouds resulting in the most stunning views on the planet and a lot of emotional young people.

All that remained was a long day coming back down the mountain to reach the Gate of The Mount Kenya National Park where they could look back and start to take in the awesome achievement of what they had just achieved.

After a long hard month the last few days in Kenya were spent relaxing on the beach in Mombassa where they were joined by eight of the Kenyan children from the start of the trip. These children had never seen the sea before and a lot of time was spent coaxing them into the water but once they had got used to it there was no stopping them and a swift set of swimming lessons were put into place.

So after conquering fears, conquering mountains, building new buildings and overcoming the different emotions of working with these wonderful children in the orphanage the trip was over and home they all came to start to realise that although these children they had been working with have nothing, they are always smiling and love to have the people that love them all around. There sense of community spirit is incredible and although our young people thought they were going over there to help and teach the children, the Kenyan children will have shown and taught them just as much. The relationships they have made will stay with them forever.

A huge thank you must go to all who helped in the build up to this expedition who include Mr Andy Hunt and his wonderful wife Sarah and Mr Julian French who work so hard behind the scenes and make this whole thing possible!

Also thanks go to all of the schools involved, Monmouthshire Youth Service, Monmouthshire and Newport Duke of Edinburgh's Award, Whittal Williams, Condomania, Marks and Spencers Newport, Rob Jobes, Prevent, The Pendragon Charity Fund, Severnside Recycling, Liverpool Football Club and most of all the parents for the support and suffering you must have gone through over the past year we hope it was all worth it! Africamp 2009 here we come!"

*If you would like more information or are interested in sponsoring or supporting next years Africamp then contact Andy Hunt or Steven Hedley on (01873) 833205 or e-mail – [email protected]">[email protected]