So much has changed in one week at KYGN. Anna Mariah, the charity's director, has returned after giving birth to a baby boy and together we are working to steer the charity in a brand new direction.

Two new volunteers, Lizzie and Naomi have arrived to help at the KYGN Centre in Mabogini and so I have given up my post as assistant to the kindergarten to become a full time teacher to the teenage girls. We set the girls an English and Maths test to work out their current levels of understanding and, using the test results, I have devised an intensive English and Maths course to take the girls up to the end of term in December. Everyday the girls walk all the way to school from Kahe, a small village many kilometres from Mabogini. The girls are desperate to have the education they have been unjustly denied and so I am working hard to not only improve their English and Maths skills but to incorporate Geography, History, Science and Health Education.

KYGN believes in sustainability and it is for this reason that the charity is in ownership of two businesses in Moshi town. The Corner Cafe is a small cafe run by ex-KYGN girls. The cafe serves excellent local food at great prices but is in dire need of investment. It has strong competition from well established bakeries and coffee shops nearby and is struggling to make a profit. Over the next few weeks we will be drawing up a pitch for investment to renovate the cafe. With a clear business plan and sufficient funding we can help create the sustainable future that KYGN so desperately needs.

KYGN is also in the process of opening The KYGN Batik Shop which I am really excited about. Ex-KYGN students have been trained in batik and fabric printing techniques as well as sewing and dress-making. I am currently devising a business plan for the shop to work out which techniques and designs are the most commercial and the most profitable. Whilst I'm geeking out with my spreadsheets, the girls are in the process of creating enough stock to move into the new premises and open for business. Watch this space!

This week we have also implemented a new Welfare Programme at the KYGN Centre. We are in the process of updating all of the girls' files with not only academic information but information about their backgrounds and home lives. This process has shed a lot of light on the plight of some of the girls at the school and has uncovered some harrowing truths. Friday was the hardest and most upsetting day of my life. One of the girls at the school had been looking very thin and pale and so we decided to take her to the local GP. We asked her to bring her brother with her to KYGN and she returned with a dirty, barefooted three year old boy. It was not his tiny frame and tattered clothing that shocked me the most, it was the look of pure sadness in his eyes. We drove into Moshi town with the little boy sitting on my lap, gripping my legs out of fear of never having been inside a vehicle before. I had to fight back the tears as I held onto the thin, dirty sweatshirt around his malnourished pot-belly. The children were diagnosed with severe malnutrition and neglect.

If this week was tough, next week promises to be even tougher. Myself and Anna Mariah are going to visit the homes of the girls we suspect are being neglected or abused and talk to the parents. Being unable to speak Swahili and having no experience in social work I was confused as to why I would be required to do home visits. However, apparently the sight of a 'mzungu' arriving creates a much bigger impact and is more likely to shock the parents into taking care of their children. Nevertheless I remain cynical about my ability to change the home lives of the girls facing the worst cases of abuse and we are coming to terms with the fact that some may need to be moved into permanent care.

The hardest truth I've had to face is that I cannot wave a magic wand and transform these girls' futures. The poverty in which they live is deeply entrenched and does not begin and end with a lack of wealth. I don't know how I'm going to be able to walk away from them in December and return to my life of privilege but in the words of Michelle, my fellow volunteer, 'if nothing else, we can just try and bring a bit of happiness into their lives'