A COUPLE who fell in love with an African charity while travelling the world have returned from their first trip back there since taking over the reins.

Bury-born Lydia Demetriou and husband Tom Turner began running Bury African Outreach (BAO), which provides education for orphaned Ugandan children, last year.

The charity has been running for more than 20 years and pays for the private education of vulnerable and orphaned youngsters to provide them with brighter futures.

Tom and Lydia, who now live in Marple, Cheshire, returned from visiting the BAO base in Tororo earlier this month after first going there as backpackers in 2010. Lydia said: “In 2010 we took career breaks to go travelling for 10 months, and we wanted to visit western Uganda to see gorillas in the wild.

“My parents had been donating to Bury African Outreach for many years so we got in touch with the nun who runs the school there, Sister Benedicta. We ended up staying there for a week, going round the schools and meeting the children.”

BAO funds schooling for 29 orphaned children aged seven to 18, many of whom have lost their parents to AIDS, civil war or malaria, through the organisation Benedictine Children of Tororo. A group of nuns ensure the children are raised in loving foster homes and the charity funds them to receive a better education than the state can provide.

Ugandan government schools are very overcrowded and often have more than 100 children per class.

Tom said: “Uganda is now a personal interest for us as it is such an incredible country — so poor but so full of hope. You really sense the optimism. If you give the children a chance they are so grateful for it.”

Two months after Lydia and Tom’s return from their travels in June 2011, BAO chairwoman Betsy Keating, who ran the charity for 20 years, announced she was stepping down.

Lydia, a medical scientist, and Tom, who works in construction, took the reins last year and now run the charity in their spare time.

Lydia said: “This trip was to check on progress and discuss plans with Sister Benedicta, who recently celebrated 50 years as a nun, and the rest of the team. We also hosted a party with current and ex-students and the success stories were so heartwarming. Children have gone on to study at university and catering college and be town planners, teachers, nuns, nurses and more.”

BAO also funded the construction of Rachel House in memory of Whitefield 18-year-old Rachel Davies who tragically died in 2008.

Fundraising from her friends and family built Rachel House in Tororo, a shelter for orphaned children and a support centre for tribes of widows and orphans.

Tom added: “We liked the fact there were no overheads with BAO — you know where all the money is going and that is our unique selling point as a charity.

“Our priority is to make sure the children finish their education and go on to further vocational courses but we have other projects on the backburner, such as building two fishponds to farm fish out there.”