AFTER spending her life savings building a school for orphaned children in Africa, a Neyland woman said she found her calling in life.

Former Milford Haven Grammar school pupil Tracey Neale-Ferreira, who has family in Fleming Way, has spent £30,000 of her savings to build a school for Kenyan orphans.

The 51-year-old, who worked most of her life as a legal secretary, said that she decided to change her life in 2010 when she realised that she was unhappy in her job.

After joining a drama class, Tracey said she build up the confidence to take a six-week TEFL course at Aberystwyth University, which took her to Kenya where she volunteered as a teacher at St Anna's Primary school for orphans.

She said: "I knew from working at St Anna's that teaching in this area was exactly what I wanted to do with the rest of my life and quickly made the decision to buy an acre and a half of land where I am now committed to building a primary school educating orphans."

She added: "The land is large enough for us to run some income generating projects and we intend to buy two large greenhouses to grow vegetables and fruit, and the sale of this will assist with the running costs.

"We also intend to dairy farm and have the room to house ten cows. Presently we have just two."

Tracey said that she will also help to facilitate the Goat Project, where widows and the elderly will receive a goat to look after for a year, until it can be bred with a purebred Billy Goat and provide milk and generate an income.

She added: "Other projects will involve the youth many of whom have no employment or skills and do not complete secondary education as their families cannot afford the fees.

"We will look into ways of setting up training opportunities by speaking with banks and major companies in the area. Eventually we hope to have in place more than a school, it's going to be a venture that works alongside and assists the whole community."

Although Tracey has enough money left to construct the school and greenhouse, she will need to fund a 14-seater minivan to transport the children from the town to the school, which she hopes to open in January 2014.

If you would like to help Tracey email jaffa17@hotmail.com.