“I knew I wanted to travel and I always had a purpose. I wanted to work with children and the culture aspect seemed very relevant.
“I did some back-packing when I left school, which gave me the confidence to go by myself.”
Now 23, she has recently returned from her third trip to Africa, where she spent six months volunteering at orphanages and women’s refuge centres.
Her first trip was in November 2007 during a break from Leeds University, where she studied childhood, culture and education after attending Gillotts School and The Henley College.
She said: “I was really ready for the adventure and I felt quite emotional about it.
“I am a very spur-of-the-moment person and don’t like to think about things too much. This was something I had always wanted to do and then suddenly I was on the plane.”
Daisy spent the next four weeks working as a volunteer at an orphanage in a rural Masai village in the Kilimanjaro region of Tanzania. She recalled: “When I got there I thought, ‘Wow, this is a completely different world’. To get to the orphanage meant taking a mini-bus packed with cattle and market women on the long ride out to the village.
“I was the only volunteer at the orphanage. I think others wanted to go to schools where children were all in uniforms rather a heart-breaking orphanage.”
The orphanage was run by a woman in her early fifties, known as the Mama, and housed 130 children from babies to 18-year-olds. Many were suffering from Aids or the HIV virus.
Daisy said: “I was washing, cuddling, feeding, clothing, cooking and playing with them. There were six or seven children in a bed. Some parents had been killed by HIV but many more had simply abandoned their children, often in maize fields.
“I couldn’t understand how people did not want the children until I understood the culture and learned that the easiest option seemed to be abandonment.”
The first child that Daisy found abandoned in a field was a two-year-old girl who was confused and dirty. She only knew that her name was Happy.
“She looked at me and called me Mama,” said Daisy. “That maternal instinct makes you think, ‘I want to take this child and look after it’.
“I wished that I could take her home, clean her, give her a chance of an education — all the things that people take for granted.”
But within a few days she realised that her role was not to pity the children/
She said: “They had nothing — they had bleeding sores on their hands but they were so proud of their home.
“It was their pride in what they had that made me realise I did not need to cry. That would have showed them there was something to feel sorry for.
“I could not solve this problem, I could only be there and give my time and my love.”
Many of the children at the orphanage contracted Aids through childbirth.
Daisy said: “The kids are really suffering and poorly and there is nothing that anyone seems to be able to do. They were very miserable and it was emotionally tough.
“At Christmas in 2007 I arranged for the children to be given presents. Those with HIV and Aids could not enjoy life and seemed like they were suffering. I would hold them and they would fall asleep in my arms. I remember thinking that if I was not there at the time they may have been left on their own.
“I was devastated when I left — it broke my heart. I had become so close and I felt like I was letting them down. I felt very guilty for leaving.
“Straight away I was focused on going back. That became everything to me and I could not think about anything else.”
In the months leading up to her next visit, Daisy wrote many letters to the children and began learning Swahili.
When she arrived in May 2008 for a six-week stay, she was greeted by the Mama, who had hired a truck specially.
“I ran out of the airport to find a load of the kids,” said Daisy. “I jumped in the truck and we drove back to the orphanage through the night.”
She had decided to live at the orphanage in order to make the best use of her time.
“Living at the orphanage meant my language improved and I got a lot more quality time with the children,” said Daisy.
“I felt more immersed in what I was doing because I couldn’t cut off. I couldn’t come away at night and lose myself in a trashy magazine.”
She had taken with her a suitcase full of pencils, notebooks and clothes, so she started teaching the orphans.
Daisy said: “Teaching was hard as the children were of so many different ages and ability ranges. Also, I wasn’t in my first language but I always felt that it was a productive use of time. I did not want to waste days.
“I got ringworm on my face and blistered constantly and all I had was home-made remedies but I was no longer concerned about myself.”
Daisy’s mother, Jennie, a house matron at Shiplake College, and brother Max, 19, a student, had worried about her health.
She said: “They asked, ‘why there?’ when I told them what I was planning to do but they knew it brought out the best in me so they were supportive. I did not really miss home as I was so busy.”After graduating in September 2008, Daisy spent a year in Antigua on an international teaching contract but couldn’t forget the children in Tanzania.
She said: “I kept studying Swahili furiously and no matter where I was my walls were always plastered in verb tables or vocabulary.
“I wrote letters to the girls who had become my sisters and when I returned last year I found they had kept every single one and tied them together with string.”
Daisy returned to Africa in September and this time stayed for six months.
“I felt like I was going home rather than arriving in a foreign land,” she said. “On the first two trips, a few weeks was too short. I would get so into it and be so focused and then had to leave.”
She stayed in the relative comfort of the local community rather than at the orphanage.
“I had to keep myself well and strong and be able to stay the duration,” she said.
“I found it really tough. As welcoming as people were, I was different. There were people who were always looking for an opportunity to rip off this single white woman with long blonde hair and jeans walking through their village.
“However, despite the looks I got, I did feel safe and being confident in Swahili was a great way to hold my own.”
During this last visit, Daisy worked at three more orphanages and helped out at women’s refuge centres.
She said: “I was so tired and ill with food poisoning when I got back. I felt very vulnerable. When you are that ill you realise that you need to be at home.”
However, she is no doubt about her future.
“I know that I will keep going back to Africa for the rest of my life and I will take my own children too,” said Daisy.
“The country is inspiring, purposeful, life-changing and rewarding. My home is in Henley but my heart is in Tanzania.”
Source http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/
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