A MOTHER of two who works in Worcester has just returned from a visit to Nepal to help disadvantaged children.

Caroline Joseph travelled to the country with her own children over the Easter holiday.

The 41-year-old volunteers for a charity called the Pegasus Children's Project, which provides a home and education for 50 young people who were previously living on the streets of Kathmandu.

In her second visit, along with charity directors and other fund-raisers, she was able to see how the children ended up homeless, and how they were being looked after by Pegasus.

Ms Joseph said: "I sponsor one of the children at the hostel and fund-raise in my spare time. Last year, the charity bought a piece of land just outside the city and we are in the middle of building a stunning eco-village for the children and their carers that looks like it belongs on the moon.

"It is very cheap to construct, extremely eco-friendly and earthquake proof up to 6.5 on the Richter scale."

While she was there, she helped work on the eco-building project and spent time with the children, helping teach them English.

"The children that we care for have all had very difficult early lives, but they are happy and loving and clever - they have so little, but material things mean so little out there, that they are just contented to have a loving home and regular food and an education."

Ms Joseph, who lives in Stourbridge but works as a sales director at BizzEnergy at Whittington Hall, has managed to get a lot of support from her colleagues who have helped collect second-hand clothes for the youngsters - but she is hoping to be able to organise fundraising events in the city in the future, and also encourage more people to help.

"Now we're back, we're looking for more sponsors for the children, and also need to do more fundraising to complete the eco-village - we need to raise about another £30,000 on top of the £50,000 we have already raised in order to finish all the building work and make the village completely self-sustainable," she said.

For more information about the charity, visit the website www.pegasuschildren.org or contact Ms Joseph directly on 07967 393668 or email carolinej@bizzenergy.com