In 1987 the Reverend Pauline Edwards, a pastor from the Pentecostal Church in Bangor, went to India and she was staggered by the number of people coming up to her asking for help. She couldn't do very much, so she came back to Bangor and asked some members of the church for their support.

At about the same time, a shop came available on Bangor high street and she was able to rent it and start the charity. She just made up the name Annie's Orphans.

We help some orphanages in India, sponsor street children in Romania, fund schools in Barundi - we do an awful lot really. We've got a lot of volunteers from the church and we have branches in Bangor, Llangefni, Llanfairfechan and Basingstoke - even a shop in Scotland.

We sell lots of things in the shop, like furniture in Bangor and clothing in Llangefni. People bring their second-hand things to us or we can pick up furniture from people's houses. The people of Bangor have been wonderful and supported the shop immensely.

I'm originally from Nigeria and came to work at the Ferodo factory near Caernarfon as an accountant in 1987 and I've been here ever since.

I thought North Wales was an amazing place when I arrived - the fresh air, lovely people, the countryside and the water all around. That was a big attraction as I'd previously been in Birmingham where I first qualified as an accountant. This city was very small though, I wasn't used to that. I now run my own accountancy firm in Bangor.

When I first came, there were few coloured faces. From 450 people at Ferodo, I was the only black person. But it was never intimidating - when you're nice to people, they're nice to you too.

Theo Ogbu