Four months ago I packed two suitcases. One with the necessities. One with 50 bottles of sunscreen. (Which, one could easily argue, were the larger necessity on this particular trip.) I stepped on a plane at Heathrow, and I stepped off into Africa.. the land where Man began, and where the oldest roads are elephant paths.

We are so thrilled to be working with UK based Festival Spirit through the end of 2016, and wanted to share more with you exactly what they’re all about..

In February of this year, 21 volunteers, one videographer, one Artist Ambassador and two (read: all) members of Team LYT met in Guatemala City for the trip of a lifetime..

People with albinism in Africa face a barrage of concerns that can be distilled into two major, heartbreaking categories — health risks & discrimination factors.

An abandoned old church, used as home base by Sean Stillman for Zac’s Place, his safe haven of food, shelter, supplies and a listening ear for countless Swansea citizens sleeping rough on the street.

The father and his sons proceeded to build a home on that land, hand mixing every batch of concrete they painstakingly troweled onto cement bricks, until one month later, they had a home. The father, Yeaqub, was at work one day not long after when a neighbour called. He told Yeaqub the soldiers had come, and they had demolished his brand new home.

Before our bags drop, the doorway is filled with smiling faces as the three mamas and their 9 children immediately come over to say hello. We are introduced to everyone, and Tita, the head mama it seems, looks Martyn in the eyes and gives her thanks for our coming to their home.

Along with visiting our beautiful project at the Alrowwad Theatre in the Aida refugee camp last April, Martyn and myself were given the opportunity to visit and share in other social and cultural events with our hosts, Amos Trust and Holy Land Trust.

Project Somos is based in Tecpán, in the central highlands of Guatemala, and was started in 2007 by Greg and Heather Knox, with the vision of building an eco-sustainable village for vulnerable children in Guatemala.