Apprentice joiners, plumbers, bricklayers, painters, plasterers and gardeners from Renfrewshire Council are to take part in a two-week trip to build a school in Malawi.

The team of over 30 Renfrewshire Council trade workers and apprentices have volunteered to take part in the project, which is being run in partnership with the charity Classrooms for Malawi.

Council volunteers will travel to the tiny William village, a remote area with around 600 children but no education provisions. The plan is to build a new, three-classroom school, as well as undertaking additional projects such as a toilet block, a kitchen and home improvements.

The education department in Malawi has committed to recruiting a teacher for the school once built. The local community plan to build a teacher’s house.

The trip will be funded through charity fundraising and donations and is part of the council’s Employee Volunteering Scheme.

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Renfrewshire’s Provost Anne Hall said: "The people of Renfrewshire have always proven themselves to be generous charity supporters and our workforce is no different. Since launching our employee volunteering scheme in 2012, employees from across the council have given their time generously to a range of projects but this trip to Malawi is the most ambitious so far.

"This is a fantastic project that will provide long term education facilities to hundreds of children who currently live too far to travel to any other school. The response from the employees invited to volunteer for this trip has been wonderful. It is a big commitment that will require nearly a year of fundraising and will be hard work when they get out there. It will also be a fantastic experience for all involved, particularly the many apprentices who are taking part."

Tony Begley, Classrooms for Malawi Co-ordinator, said: "We are excited and delighted that a team from Renfrewshire Council will be collaborating with us to build a school at this extremely remote rural village. We can already see and appreciate that the team have the skills, energy, enthusiasm and passion necessary to raise the funds and to see this demanding project through to a conclusion.

"Although Classrooms for Malawi have worked in various communities across Malawi this is the first time we have undertaken the task of building where there is no existing school. Currently if a child from William village wants to go to school they have to walk an unthinkable distance, so many do not go, so this school will provide them with an education they simply could not receive otherwise. The school will benefit the community for generations to come."

(IT/CD)