Theogene Sindikubwabo was just ten when his parents, grandparents and three of his siblings were murdered in one night.

It was April 7, 1994, and they were killed because they would not join in with the massacre of the Tutsis.

Theogene, from Rwanda, survived because he hid up a banana tree. His younger brother, Jean Claude, then six, also survived.

Their ordeal is just one of the remarkable stories Tim Stickland and Mark Hillman, from Chichester, heard when they went to the country on an aid mission.

They took part in an expedition organised by British charity Send a Cow to build nine goat sheds to help make the boys' village of Muhororo self-sufficient.

Neither Tim nor Mark said they were completely prepared for how different life would be in the central African country.

Nor for some of the harrowing stories of some of the orphans they were about to help.

For Tim, 16, who left his Chichester High School friends celebrating the end of their GCSEs, it has been a life-changing experience.

He said: "The Rwandans are so eager to help and so happy you are there. One man had walked five miles to help us."

He said it has made him realise how lucky he was to live in England.

He said: "It has made me realise how commercial everything is in this country.

"The people out there appreciated every little thing we did for them."

The expedition was led by PC Hillman, beat officer for Chichester city centre and a colleague of Tim's dad, Sgt Steve Stickland, who is also based at Chichester police station.

Mark, 49, has been a director of Send a Cow for six years and has visited other African countries but said even he was moved by the plight of the orphans.

He said: "The genocide was awful. One million people were killed in 100 days.

"The people who were left were either old people or young children. There is a whole band of people in the middle age range who are missing."

He said building the huts may seem basic to people back in the UK but it meant so much to the Rwandans.

He said "We built one goat shed a day. We asked them how long it would take them normally and they said it would take a week.

"What we were doing was very important to them.

"While we were there we had a visit by government officials including the vice-president of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the ruling party, and the ministers for reconciliation and justice.

"They were very keen that we all came back to England and tell people about the country's hopes and aspirations for the future."

Mark said the trip was about giving people a helping hand rather than a handout and felt they had achieved that.

For more information on Send a Cow, call 01225 447041.