The body of a child torn apart by a landmine lay in the sunburnt grass of Southern Sudan.
It was the moment former US Outlaws bikie Sam Childers decided to devote the rest of his life to saving the children of Africa.
"The body may have been there for about 12 or 16 hours," Mr Childers told AAP.
"As I stood there over the child I said 'God I'd do anything I can to help these people'."
Childers has arrived in Australia on a month-long speaking tour to youth detention centres, prisons, schools and churches where he hopes his story will inspire hope.
Childers gave up a life of drugs and crime in the notorious US Outlaws motorcycle gang after he noticed his life began to improve when he joined his then-girlfriend on her visit to church.
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His dedication to Africa was sparked in 1998 when he stumbled across the child's body during a church mission to rebuild huts destroyed by war in Southern Sudan.
Not long afterwards Childers began building his first orphanage in Southern Sudan after selling his construction business back in the US.
Most of the orphans have lost their parents due to brutal violence, accidents or diseases such as AIDs and malaria.
Others are former child soldiers and sex slaves rescued by Childers from local militia groups such as the Lord's Resistance Army run by Joseph Kony.
"Kony was wanting to get a hold of me as much as I wanted to get a hold of him," Childers said of the murderer who is now believed to be hiding somewhere deep in the Congo.
With an AK47 in one hand and a bible in the other, Childers has become affectionately known as the Machine Gun Preacher.
His life story was published in his 2009 biography Another Man's War that was turned into a Hollywood feature film in 2011 called The Machine Gun Preacher.
Through his charity - The Angels of East Africa - Childers has built seven orphanages, seven schools, about 40 wells for clean drinking water, and a farm where he teaches those displaced by war how to make a living.
"We don't want them to be beggars, but to equip and teach someone a skill and trade that can change nations," Mr Childers told AAP.
"I can't save all the children but you do what you have to do".
Millions of people are on the brink of starvation in Southern Sudan as East Africa is gripped by a famine mainly due to conflicts between tribal groups, according to the United Nations Security Council.
