GIVE a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, feed him for a lifetime.

It is an old saying but for the people of Workaid, it is still very true.

Workaid, based in Amersham, is a voluntary organisation which collects unwanted tools, sewing machines, typewriters and such like, refurbishes them and then sends them out to vocational centres in Third World countries.

David Kemp, a Workaid volunteer, has recently returned from Uganda where he was helping to oversee and co-ordinate Workaid's latest project.

David, 60, of Speen Road, North Dean, is a committed Christian and prefers another saying from James 1:27; "Religion that God our father accepts as pure and faultless is to look after orphans and widows."

The last trip in September was David's 13th. He was first called to go to Uganda in the late eighties for his church, Holy Trinity, in Hazlemere.

David said: "I had a successful business. I didn't really want to go, but God spoke to me."

Since then, David has made a number of journeys to Uganda, experiencing the deep poverty that people have to live through.

He said: "From affluent Western society to Third World, poverty-stricken society is very difficult to describe. Over the years, it has improved but it is still very, very poor."

David added: "I would think urban poverty is worse than country poverty. In the towns, everything is broken down. They are very, very poor."

This visit, David's fourth for Workaid, did come with a few problems like a stomach upset, known as the Nile Smile, leaving him in bed for four days being nursed by nuns.

But most of the trip went well as David travelled around the country during his five week stay, ensuring Workaid equipment is being used wisely, such as at the BDYA Youth and Street Children Programme in Mbale.

David said: "They have a good building just outside town where boys are taught carpentry and girls, tailoring. If the boys graduate after two years training they are given a set of carpentry tools and are helped to find work."

Workaid continues to help the group by re-supplying them with tools.

David also visited a couple who have sold everything they had in UK and moved to a place near Luwero to help the poor.

Rachel Clay, who attended Wycombe High School, and her husband Dave have bought eight acres of land and planted pineapple trees. They will be equipped with horticultural tools by Workaid.

The plantation will be helping orphans at a New Hope Centre, which educates about 250 children, with 60 orphans housed in villages around the centre.

Another project helped by Workaid, in partnership with the Cheshire Home charity, is a place for disabled children, managed by a Franciscan nun called Sister Margaret Awor.

David said: "Sister Margaret does an amazing job at earning money. The disabled boys are able to do carpentry and make shoes."

The centre also has a poultry farm even though there is no milling machine for grinding the chicken feed.

David said: "Sister Margaret has to travel 70km every third day on the worst roads imaginable to get the food ground. By the time I travelled the 70km, my insides felt as if they had been through a blender."

He added: "I was so impressed with Sister Margaret's undaunted spirit. She told me she never turns anyone away who needs care."

Workaid is now trying to help the centre further by finding a milling machine.

David's role, also extends to making contacts to find more people to help out. During the last week this happened when David was invited into the office of the President of Uganda's wife.

He metthe chairman of the Advancement of Rural Women in Uganda group,who will help Workaid link up with more disadvantaged groups to provide equipment.

David said: "I never dreamt at the beginning of this visit that I would have meetings in the prime minister's and first lady's office.

"But then with God all things are possible."