Transforming lives in Africa from Gippsland

Kerryn Vaughan works to make every minute count; to live a life of purpose. Achieving all this from her lifestyle property outside Trafalgar with her partner and their menagerie of pets by her side. She is a passionate advocate for young people, animal welfare and conservation. 

The main focus of Kerryn’s volunteer work is to reduce suffering for people in Africa, which she is does through the Not For Profit she founded in 2015, One Planet Classrooms. 

Finding sponsors for individual school children, providing laptops for schools, mozzie nets to prevent malaria, water tanks, raising funds to purchase land to expand and improve a small school in Uganda. Getting basic items like reusable sanitary pads distributed which the women in Kenya sew themselves to prevent girls from missing school each month. 

Other than a few years spent in Melbourne, Gippsland has been her home. She knows all the good places to take your dog for a walk. 

Kerryn is also a singer/musician and recently published her first book ‘Magnificent Kids’. She believes everything happens for a reason and has been overwhelmed with the influence her book has had worldwide and the amazing things that have come from her taking the leap of faith to write it. Her only regret is that she didn’t do it sooner.

Her tenacity and grit is inspired by other activists from the past. People like Rosa Parks who became an icon for equality in America after she refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger. Kerryn is inspired by this womans legacy. Living into her 90’s protesting and being arrested for her activism. 

Kerryn is a bubbly, social person she loves being around people and is very comfortable on the stage speaking to a crowd of people about her organisation or singing with her guitar. She’s often called the ‘life of the party’. However, with a very full life she likes nothing more than a quiet space with no TV or music on, just peace. Most Friday nights she’s happiest relaxing on the couch after something simple like baked beans on toast for dinner followed by a cider.

You can see the great things Kerryn and her supporters are doing at their Facebook Page for One Planet Classrooms