Little Chalfont teen to help South African kids

The orphanage helps to look after orphans and abandoned children, many of whom are afflicted by Aids-related illnesses.
And now Katie wants to make an emotional return trip to Johannesburg to link up once again with the principals at the orphanage.
She first encountered the project during a visit to the southern hemisphere with members of the Amersham-based Kings Church Youth Group in 2007.
The trip to the orphanage proved a life enhancing experience for Katie.
"There was this young boy called Keagan, now happily adopted by a family in Germany, who took a great liking to me and it was very heartening to know that, in a small way, perhaps I had helped to make a difference in his life," she said.
A former pupil at Dr Challoner's High School in Little Chalfont, Katie will begin 2009 with a trip to Tanzania and then it is off to South Africa for her dedicated endeavour.
Her faith, she said, had given her a strong sense of purpose and she said that raising the money for the trip had also been fun.
"This has helped me to focus on my longterm future and I am ultimately interested in going to university and studying something like event management which hopefully might enable me to continue to work for good charitable causes," she said.
Katie is currently working ultra-hard juggling four different jobs in a bid to bring in the necessary cash for the trip.
"I found the first trip to the orphanage very hard. There was no rest. I was changing nappies, doing all sorts of work, but it was uplifting. Now I am excited and very enthused about what is before me in 2009."