British Aid Volunteer Dies of Misguided Altruism in Kenya

Telegraph
May 26, 2014

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Christi Kelly was 3 months into a 10 month placement in Kenya, where she had been cooking for the Blacks and teaching them to dance.

A 21-year-old British aid volunteer has died from malaria while working at a primary school in Kenya.

Christi Kelly, known as Belle to her friends, was cooking meals for impoverished youngsters and teaching them to dance when she fell ill.

She was taken to a hospital six hours away in the capital, Nairobi, on Tuesday but died the following day.

Her family from Ilfracombe, Devon, say she had all the necessary injections and was taking anti-malaria tablets.

Miss Kelly, a former Plymouth university student, was three months into a ten-month placement with Moving Mountains, a trust which improves social conditions in Kenya.

She was stationed in the western county of Siaya, living at an orphanage and teaching dance at the local primary school.

Her mother Carol Kelly said she last spoke to her daughter on Sunday, when she said she had been in bed and was feeling unwell.

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Christi Kelly was on her second overseas placement having carried out environmental aid work in Borneo last year.

Mrs Kelly, 41, said: “She was teaching the children dance, she absolutely loved it out there.

“She was living at the orphanage and teaching at the primary school. She taught dance but she obviously helped out with the cooking and so on.

“As far as we’re aware, everything happened very quickly.

“I think she went to hospital on Tuesday and died on Wednesday morning at around 6am – but it’s all very unclear at the moment.

“We had been speaking to her a lot more because of all the troubles in Kenya but they were fine.

“It’s got the highest rate of malaria but she had had all her injections and was taking tablets.”

Miss Kelly attended Ilfracombe Arts College before completing a foundation degree in Dance and Community Work Practice at Plymouth university.

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