A DEDICATED fund-raiser has set her sights on providing a drought-hit Kenyan village with two new wells.

Annie Austin, 66, of Button Bridge, travels to the African country next January, having raised £13,000 over the past three years.

Residents in the village of Kosele are battling the worst drought in more than 20 years and Mrs Austin said the bore holes would “help them to help themselves”.

She also hopes to raise enough cash to get them forks, hoes and seeds, so they can dig the ground and grow their own vegetables.

“I just hope and pray that we can do as much as possible to help them,” she said, “A lot of the villagers only eat every other day and only eat the bare minimum - they are malnourished and have swollen stomachs and it breaks my heart.”

An auction is being held on November 7 at Bewdley’s Riverside Church in Dog Lane to help fund the project.

People are encouraged to take their antiques, while electricians and cleaners will also be auctioning their services.

Mrs Austin first visited Kenya on a safari holiday in 2006 and ended up being taken to a school there, where nearly half of pupils were orphans.

She explained she was “horrified” to see one boy had lost the ends of his toes. “He had no shoes, so the termites in the mud had eaten away at his toes,” she explained, “The tears were running down my face and I made a promise to myself to help these people.”

Mrs Austin suffered 10 strokes eight years ago which, she said, inspired her to do more work to help other people.

She went on: “It’s completely changed my life and it stopped me feeling sorry for myself.

“You have to look at the bigger picture, as there’s always someone worse off than you.

“It’s horrendous what is going on in Kenya at the moment and it doesn’t even make the British news.”