Ever had the urge to go out and make a difference? Emma Pinch meets the man who wants us to down pens and take up work tools with him in Africa

FOR one reason and another Paul Howells didn’t have any children.

But when the 47-year-old gardener from Formby arrives in a dusty town on the banks of Lake Victoria he’s mobbed by adoring youngsters. “These are my children now,” he says quietly, gazing proudly at a photo with him surrounded by trusting faces.

Paul, a self-confessed fundraising addict, has found himself at the hub of a large, lively and unusual family in Entebbe, Uganda, on the banks of Lake Victoria. His 20 “children” are parentless victims of war and Aids orphans.

He first met them in 2006, when they’d been plucked from a dusty refugee camp and were making the best of life in an orphanage which, in terms of physical conditions, was barely any better.

Aged between five and 12 they were victims of the civil war which had been raging in North Uganda for nine years, waged by Joseph Kony, the notorious leader of Uganda's rebel guerrillas.

Reports describe him as being linked to the abduction of 30,000 children and displacement of 1.6 million people since 1986.

Joseph Kony’s army – Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) – would kill the parents then make them into child soldiers, explains Paul. If they escaped they’d end up in a camp of mud huts.

“When you live here,” he explains, “you always want to do more, you always want more money.

“Those children in Africa think you’re already millionaires.

“When I met them they were smiling and happy, and I thought how could that be, when they’ve been through all this. I was amazed at how they dealt with it. Right away I thought I’d like to build an orphanage for them with electricity and running water.”

Paul was already a dedicated charity fundraiser when he found his new mission.

He’d raised money for the likes of Jospice but in 2006 had the feeling he wanted to make a bigger, more tangible difference.

An encounter with North Africa during the gruelling Marathon de Sable made his mind up it had to be that continent. “At least over here we have social security. There you see what poverty really is,” he offers.

He found his project in Uganda, where he visited a nurse working with children. Full of fire to get going, he started a charity.

Once he put the word out, including advertising in a Formby gym, he found a horde of people with exactly the same feeling.

“Something had been building in me,” he explains. “The feeling that I had to do something to make a difference.

“The thing is, everyone I met said they had this urge to do something too, but didn’t know how to go about it. They’d thought about VSO and paid projects but they weren’t right.”

Willing volunteers included a couple of bricklayers, who would work in tandem with Ugandans, a web designer, a BT worker, a teacher and plumber, a carpenter and an electrician.

They and his network of contacts through charity work in Formby, Allerton and Crosby saw pals swing into action. Mark Corry, who runs Paintball Zone in Kirkby, put on a brace of big events.

Others did runs, held dinner dances at Formby Hall, poker nights, five-a-side football matches and even went bag packing at Asda in Allerton and Sainsbury’s in Crosby.

“That’s the worst,” Paul grins, “bag packing. But we raised about £40,000 in total.”

Finally work could start. He and his team raised their air fares and a couple of hundred pounds for their food and keep in Uganda, and flew out last February.

The scrub covering the patches of land they had bought was the first obstacle.

Paul put his back into clearing the land, using his skills as a gardener. “The local workers showed me how to use a hoe, which was like a pickaxe handle and a spade.”

The brickies also learned new ways of doing things.

“The best, hardest bricks are the ones they make out of mud from termite mounds,” explains Paul. “Nearly everyone makes them in Uganda. It was a challenge finding decent bricks and then getting the guys to find more before they ran out.”

THE relaxed approach to time was another surprise. “Everything is a lot slower and takes more time to do. Someone would say they’d bring them at noon and they’d come at 6pm. The only way to get them there earlier was to see another guy turning up as competition to make sure they got the business.” They hired an old-fashioned cement mixer which came with a worker and mixed cement by hand.

They also hired two girls who would cook banana or potato rice with goat for the local workers, while they went to the shop to get cheese or ham and dry bread, to make a sandwich.

“That part wasn’t fantastic. All the guys were up at six without breakfast and worked in the heat until 7pm to get it finished and never complained. But that shows how much they enjoyed it.”

One of Paul’s conditions was they all took a day off to take the children out.

“I’m one of eight kids born in a three bedroom council house with an outdoor toilet. We had nothing. Now and again a family friend, Cliff, would take us out for the day to Chester Zoo. He’d say: ‘I’ve got a bunch of kids from this children’s home’, and they would let us in. It was a bit naughty but I remember what a treat it was.”

Paul knows just how lucky he was.

“Coming from a poor background when I was a kid I wanted to be one of the rich kids. Later I realised what I did have was a really close family.”

He adds: “My wife Angela and I got married young, my wife was doing well at work, so we decided we didn’t want kids. Because I’m from a big family I was always surrounded by them growing up. So these are my children now.”

Going home the workers were baffled by a barrage of feelings. Pride, hope, sadness, relief... and a faint sense of ridiculousness.

Each day the volunteers had worked with a team of Ugandans. They’d shared bricks and beers with and come to regard them as friends. The Ugandans had coveted the Englishmen’s clean shirts and sturdy work boots, since they arrived. Now dirty and worn they were still desirable.

“On the last day a volunteer was asked for his boots,” remembers Paul. “Soon all of us were taking off our shirts and boots to give away.

‘SO ON the way back on the bus there we were, 19 of us guys in just in our underpants.”

This month Paul and a handful of volunteers will travel back to Uganda to see the orphans move in. It will be named James Dunn House of Hope, after an inspiring young man in Allerton that Paul’s raised money for, who has Epidermolysis Bullosa.

Paul’s dream is to build five more orphanages in Uganda. Next February he plans to build the next and he’s recruiting volunteers to help him.

He wants people for fundraising and to go over to Africa to build. Airfare and accommodation for the month costs about £1,000 and he’d ideally like volunteers to raise another £1,000 for the charity, but it’s not necessary, he says. And what do you get in return?

“All I can say is that at one time or another 20 people who went in February shook my hand and said it was a life-changing experience. It’s amazing what happens when you decide you want to do something.”

FOR more information go to www.isaacshouse.org or call Paul Howells on 07973379320