Big-hearted Saida Akram is delivering an uplifting experience for dozens of orphaned and hungry youngsters after being touched by their plight on an emotionally-charged trip to Tanzania.
Oxfordshire-based Saida was part of a delegation from leading business-to-business express delivery company, TNT, who flew out to Kilimanjaro to support the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) feed and educate impoverished children.
Now, six months after flying more than 5,000 miles to witness, first hand, how the WFP makes the best possible use of TNT's £7.5m annual donation to help sustain the hungry children, Saida is arranging a 600lb (280kg) airlift of 'goodies' to bring a little happiness to the malnourished boys and girls.
Saida, the Sales Manager at TNT's depot at Milton Park, near Didcot, is the inspiration behind the movement of the giant TNT 'present' that includes colouring books, pens, paper, books, crayons, cuddly toys, t-shirts, football strips, globes and mugs and is due to be flown out of London Heathrow to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania later this month.
She said: "My time in Tanzania was very humbling, especially after spending time with young orphans and children who survive on just one bowl of rice and maize a day.
"I felt privileged to have spent time with some remarkable children. They have so little in life and yet they never seemed to stop smiling. They melted our hearts and it put into perspective how fortunate we are with what we have and how we are able to live here in the UK.
"Once we had returned to this country both myself and my TNT colleagues wanted to do something on a personal level to try and help the children we had met. Over the last few months we've been busy bringing things together and now we're ready to fly the consignment out to Africa."