Sarah's African odyssey: a sponsor visits Tanzania

In January 2008, self-employed artist and healer Sarah Cheesbrough finally felt like she was in the right place at the right time - in Africa. She shares her story with us.

"A few months earlier, my friend Katie had told me about the little girl she sponsored through Plan, and explained how her monthly contributions helped this Orissan child receive an education and her community have fresh water and medical care. With that in mind, I too became a sponsor with Plan and was assigned a little girl in Africa, a five-year-old girl named Zulpha.

I had been researching travel to Africa because I dreamed of meeting and photographing the mountain gorillas of Uganda. As I put my gorilla-trek together, I realised that Zulpha was only a skip and a splash away from Zanzibar, the spice island I would visit for sun and sand before heading to the mountains of Uganda and Rwanda.

So, I applied to Plan for permission to visit and, once my Criminal Records Bureau check was complete, was told when Plan staff in Dar Es Salaam could accompany me to my Swahili speaking family.

Armed with crayons, balloons, a teddy bear and loads of film for my gorilla-odyssey, I arrived in Africa. On the day of the visit, three Plan officers came with me - Luis who took photos, Anna who wrote notes, and Maximillion who translated when necessary. We drove via their offices, through the slums of Dar Es Salaam to Zulpha's community.

An unforgettable welcome

Her parents, I was told, would not be there as they were at work, so I was surprised by the reception committee that awaited me in her tiny back yard - Zulpha's 18-year-old auntie, young grandmother and great-grandmother, neighbours, chickens and children. Everywhere, beautiful, shining children.

I felt an immediate kinship with 'Auntie' and I asked her if she had a dream. She blushed and stuttered shyly that she wanted to be a lawyer and was waiting for her exam results. I hoped very hard that poverty and early childbirth would not stand in her way, for she was alight with intelligence and potential.

Curiosity and kindness

The atmosphere hummed with focused curiosity and contained excitement, and whilst we adults all grinned at each other, Zulpha with the true honesty of a five-year-old, catapulted herself into her grandmother's bosom and wept.

I got the teddy bear out of my bag and stroked her arm with its paw. Amazingly, she reached out, pulled the bear close without once looking at it or me, or pausing for breath! I sat on the ground and produced the balloons. Soon all the other children were laughing and Zulpha joined in.

When the Plan staff announced that it was time to leave, Zulpha's neighbour approached me and, with shaking hands, tied a plastic bead necklace round my neck. 'She made it for you,' I was told. Then another neighbour removed the bracelet from her own wrist and placed it round mine.

Such spontaneous acts of generosity were humbling and infinitely more precious than any number of Tanzanite rings.

My visit concluded with a tour of the local health clinic, the building of which had been funded by Plan. It was impressive, clean and well equipped. From the tented cholera ward outside to the blood-centrifuging unit, we finally ended up in the post delivery room, which was empty save for a bundle of rags on the bed.

The doctor peeled back a corner of cloth to reveal a baby just thirty minutes out of the womb, and told me that the mother was, in plucky African style, up having a stroll with her husband!

Nothing will erase from my heart the privilege of meeting Zulpha and her family. Over the ensuing weeks in East Africa I saw Zulphas everywhere - kids growing up in poverty and going to school only if their parents could afford it, and many orphans fending for themselves because their parents had died of AIDS.

We have the power to make a difference in the lives of these children, and Plan provides a vehicle for us to do it in a very personal way. Sponsoring a child in a developing country costs just two bottles of cheap plonk a month. Sobering, isn't it?"