A MOTHER and son from Test Valley have jetted out to Africa to provide aid to villagers.

Emma Wightman and her son George, from Stockbridge, flew to Kenya to help administer medical care to women and children in the slums of Nairobi and remote villages of the Maasai.

In taking part in the trip, Farley School pupil George, 12, became the youngest ambassador for humanitarian aid organisation The Divinity Foundation.

As part of their week-long care-giving effort, the pair worked in a remote area called the Mau Forest and the Maasai Mara, where the charity has just completed building a rescue centre for girls fleeing from female genital mutilation (FGM).

To mark her third visit to the country, the charity recently set up a project in Emma’s name, called Emma’s Angels, which finds sponsors for young girls, helping them into secondary education.

This keeps the girls safe from FGM, and also provides them with education.

Upon returning to Stockbridge, osteopath Emma told the Andover Advertiser: “When the opportunity arose to travel again to Kenya, I thought hard about whether it was the right time to introduce my oldest child to my work out there.

“After long chats within the family and with his school, we all agreed it would be a wonderful opportunity for new experiences and personal development.

“Seeing George as a young humanitarian has filled me with pride.

“He has risen to every challenge, worked from five in the morning to midnight, coped with every new situation, from making up prescriptions to deworming thousands of children, and wholeheartedly embracing the Kenyan people.”

George said: “Before the trip I was very nervous about handing out medicine and being in a country so far away from home.

“The experience that will stay with me forever would definitely be running with the young children and how they were so excited by my skin and hair!

“I felt very at home being in Kenya and would wish to go back sometime very soon.”

If you would like to get involved with Emma’s Angels and sponsor a girl or learn more about the Divinity Foundation visit divinityfoundation.org or contact Emma at stockbridgeosteopathicpractice @googlemail.com.