THEIR CLASSROOMS might seem a world apart but the pupils of Fair Oak Junior School have forged a heart-warming link with children living in an African slum.

School for the children in Kware, a sprawling suburb of Nairobi in Kenya, is a shed with a dirt floor.

But, thanks to the fundraising efforts of the Fair Oak pupils and other schoolchildren in Hampshire, work is forging ahead on a project to build a new school in Kware.

Project director Benn Mugisha visited Fair Oak - home of the St Thomas' Handshake to Kware Appeal - to meet the children and give them an update.

See Saturday's Daily Echo for the moving story of how the money boxes being filled by Hampshire schoolchildren are making a real difference to the lives of the Kware street children.