Community rallies to send Burnley woman to help South African orphans

Beauty Yazmin Begum, of Borrowdale Drive, managed to raise more than £1,000 to fund the trip which will see her help orphans in the country’s poorest shanty towns.

The 25-year-old healthcare assistant was over the moon to be going on her dream humanitarian mission in and thanked everyone’s efforts for her recent successful fund-raising bonanza.

“It was a very successful event. The turnout was brilliant. It was hard work and took a lot of time and effort but it was well worth it.

“I want to thank the people who took part in the fashion show, the dance performances, rappers, singers, all did an amazingly well.

“Big thank you goes to Ashoka Restaurant, Asha takeaway, and a very big thank you to Shagor Tandoori takeway for donating all the food for the event and everyone for their kind donation.

“I’m looking forward to my trip and I know I’m doing it for a very good cause.”

Beauty, who has worked in nursing for more than seven years, will jet out to Cape Town in April where tens of thousands of people live in makeshift houses.

She said: “We will meet the orphans and assess their needs. The money I raise will go towards helping them.

“If they don’t have water we could put some of the money towards providing a water machine or, if they have no shelter, we can build them houses.

“We will be looking at education too and visiting schools. We can help them by buying school equipment like books, or pens and pencils.

“These are things we take for granted. They live each day without anything.

“We are very fortunate to have everything we have.”

Beauty will be chronicling her work in the slums in a diary which she will use to report back to all the donors to show how their money was spent on the trip.