LIKE most towns across the globe, Nanyuki has a homelessness problem.

But, while shoppers in Worcester are more used to seeing adult beggars, the streets of Nanyuki are filled with children.

There are around 180 street children in the town and most live in the disused open bars beside the notorious Riverside Hotel.

Several times during the six-week stay at the nearby camp, 1WFR and other soldiers have been paying visits to the hang-out.

The mission has been led by the Royal Logistics Corps - one of the attached units to 1WFR - and is co-run with a shopkeeper known locally as the Jungle Master.

"The decision was taken that the money made via the pool table would go to help the street kids," said Capt Rob Brown.

"We thought it was essential to target street children direct, otherwise all the money raised might not find its way to them."

The Jungle Master's real name is Boniface Hyumu.

"The youngest children are about four or five," he told me. "They're at an age where their parents can't afford to feed them. They just get cast out on the streets by their parents.

"Some of them suffer from child abuse.

"They're left to fend for themselves and to get money."

The money from the pool table was given to the Jungle Master, who was able to buy clothes cheaply.

"We knew the Jungle Master had direct links with the street kids," said Capt Brown.

"He can liaise with the market traders and get us a good deal.

"It was felt that, if we went to buy these things ourselves, we'd be charged twice as much."

But not all the children benefit from the Army's charity. Capt Rob Brown refused one boy clothes.

"You've sold them for glue in the past," he told the boy, who was around 13.

"It's no good you lying, you've sold clothes for glue. Glue's no good. It makes you go crazy. Why do you do it?"

To prevent the street children selling their new clothes for glue, the soldiers burnt their old ones.

The sight's enough to choke the toughest of men, and those soldiers who are shown the deprivation are left with the impression that they've been born lucky.

Pte Steve Davies, from Leigh Sinton Road, Malvern Link, went along with the team to visit the street kids.

"This is a lot different to home," said the 19-year-old. "I can't really describe it."