STAR striker Andy Cole has swapped his World Cup dream for a mercy mission to help homeless street kids in Africa.

The Blackburn Rovers player announced his retirement from international football last week after being left out of England manager Sven Goran Eriksson's squad for Japan and South Korea.

But far from feeling sorry for himself, Cole will be visiting the children of Zimbabwe to see how his charity, the Andy Cole Children's Foundation, has been helping to improve their lives.

The England squad is due to jet off on Wednesday to enjoy extravagant training facilities in Dubai.

The following day Cole will be preparing to travel to the slums around Harare. And the children, many of whom are suffering from AIDS, cannot wait for their hero to return.

Chris Clarke, who works full time for the charity said: "They are all football mad. A lot of them support Manchester United, but a few of them managed to somehow to see Blackburn win the Worthington Cup."

Cole set up the Foundation in 2000 after being moved to tears by what he saw during a visit to Zimbabwe in 1999, with many children living in cardboard boxes, orphaned by the parents who fell victim to the AIDS epidemic.

Since then, the charity has gone from strength to strength and has raised more than £250,000, including £60,000 raised at the Foundation's annual dinner at the Lowry Hotel, Manchester, in March.

So far the money has been used to build a children's home for 120 homeless children as well as providing the facilities to run a mobile clinic in Mbuya Nehanda, 40km from Harare.

The Rovers striker said: "I'll never forget my first trip to Zimbabwe. I was on a high having just won the Champions League with Manchester United.

"I went out to Africa to do a TV documentary and couldn't believe what I saw. It left me in tears.

"There were kids living in boxes, children who had been born with AIDS, and I decided on the way back I wouldn't be just a one-visit wonder."

He added: "There were children, some little older than toddlers, whose lives had been broken down to such an extent that they are forced into sleeping in drains and gutters and to rummage in bins for scraps of food.

"I decided to set up the Foundation and this visit will be a great chance to see how the money we have raised has helped."

The Andy Cole Children's Foundation has made a magnificent start in bringing relief to Mbuya Nehanda Children's Home, funding the building of a new dairy, which is already in use, and the installation of new water vats, which will save on the cost of constant pumping from long distances.

Chris Clarke said: "Over the next few years with our partnership with the charity HOPE for Children we hope to help fund much more of the work."