A FORMER beautician turned student teacher has returned from an “experience of a lifetime” helping young children in Kenya.

Jessica Broome, from Cleobury Mortimer, spent three and a half weeks in the African country with the charity Pendana.

The 26-year-old is currently studying for a BA (Hons) in Primary Initial Teacher Education at the University of Worcester.

“It was the experience of a lifetime,” said Jessica.

“The poverty over there really struck me as I’d not seen anything like that before. No-one could have really prepared me for that.

But the people were so lovely and kind.”

Jessica spent time helping run a holiday club and crèche for local villagers.

“We had to walk an hour, through a coffee plantation, every day to get to the school,” she said. “On the way children would just jump out of the bush and follow us.

"We could only take 50 children a day so they all wanted to make sure they were first there.”

Jessica received £800 from the University’s Scholarship Panel towards the cost of the trip.

“I have been invited to go back and help the next group of volunteers to settle in, which is a real honour.

"I learned so much I can use in my teaching in the future and we passed on many new ideas, so it was mutually beneficial.”