I love what I do and am hugely fortunate that there are a great many highlights that I have enjoyed throughout my career to date. As anyone who listened to my recent interview with PR Moment will know, one of the most enriching and fulfilling things about working in the field of international communications is the opportunity to travel to, work with and get to know people from different countries, cultures and faiths.

One such particularly rewarding opportunity was a recent visit to Nairobi in Kenya and a meeting with community leaders there where, alongside businessman and philanthropist Leo Noé, I helped opened a number of community cookers kindly donated by our client – the Rachel Charitable Trust.

The community cookers are a great initiative that really do transform communities by providing a safe and more environmentally friendly way for communities to cook food. They generate heat by burning rubbish rather than firewood from trees being depleted from forests. The community cookers have been a success where they have been installed which is why the Rachel Charitable Trust has been so supportive of the initiative – and long may it continue.

When you work in communications and hone your skills as a storyteller, it’s always rewarding – and indeed motivating – to get out from behind the desk and find opportunities to meet the people who give stories their power. We were given an immensely warm and hospitable welcome by the community and one could never tire of hearing about what a difference these kinds of projects – and the philanthropy that powers so much of it – makes in people’s lives. Of course, no trip to this friendly and beautiful country would be complete without taking in a bit of local wildlife. The highlight – a close encounter with some majestic but improbably large elephants. Take a look at the video below and you’ll see what I mean.