WHILE their colleagues enjoyed a break from work and studies, 17 students and four staff from a Darwen sixth form spent their half-term holiday teaching in some of the poorest slum areas of Uganda.

The trip, part of the biennial AfriDACA project, was the second time Darwen Aldridge Community Academy students had gone out to Kampala and was the resultculmination of nearly two years of planning and fundraising.

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The education they provided was, for many of the Ugandans, the first time that anybody had given their time to teach the young people of an area known as the Acholi Quarter.

Living as refugees in their own land, the Acholi children are part of the 1.8million people displaced from their villages and towns as a result of a civil war, which only finished in 2008.

Principal Brendan Loughran said: “The conditions were very challenging with only the very basic amenities available to the team.

“During their teaching hours, there were extremely high temperatures, but this did not deter the students from their mission.

“From drawing clocks in the dust on the floor to teach about time, to expressing their passion through dance and song, the AfriDACA team shared their knowledge and expertise through a wide range of different approaches.

“Each student returned with their own personal recollections and pledged to make changes at home, and many are already making plans to return in the future.”

Group leader and PE teacher at DACA Paul Earnshaw said: “It has been emotional at times for our students.

“The party experienced highs and lows, from being welcomed like celebrity stars by the Acholi children, to hearing harrowing stories of mutilation and murders within families of the Acholi Tribe, but the reward is that we all know that we have made a positive difference.”

Mr Loughran said: “The aim of the visit is to benefit the Darwen students giving them experience in an economically less developed country and to benefit the Ugandan children who they teach.”

“The staff, parents and friends of the AfriDACA team are all exceptionally proud of what the students have achieved in such a relatively short space of time.

“For many this is just the start of their journey, whether into teaching or further overseas travel and work and it will be fascinating to see where this experience takes them.”