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A pair of sixth form students from Castle Manor Academy are raising funds to spend a month in Ghana volunteering in a nursery and helping with a local construction project.

The students, Bethany Franks and Emily Roberts, both 18 from Haverhill, have already used their savings to pay for the flights and now need to raise £1,000 to go towards the cost of accommodation and injections.

They’ve already received support from Havebury Housing and the Rev Canon Ian Finn at St Mary’s towards this goal, but would now like to galvanise the support of the community.

Bethany Franks is excited about the opportunity. “We really wanted to use the time after our A-levels to do something constructive," she said.

"We think this is an excellent opportunity to help those less fortunate than ourselves. We’ve been overwhelmed with the offers of support so far, but we still need more to meet our ambitious fundraising targets.”

Bethany and Emily have been raising funds through the Bags2School scheme, which rewards them for collecting bags of unwanted materials, such as clothes and bed linen.

You can help their cause, either by donating money or by donating unwanted clothing. Monetary donations can be given to Castle Manor Academy, cheques made payable to Castle Manor Academy and clearly marked for the Original Volunteers project.

If you have bags of textiles that you’d like to donate these can also be brought in to the academy.

Bethany and Emily need to raise their funds by July 21 and will be leaving Haverhill on August 7 for the trip. They’re hopeful that afterwards they will be able to share their experience with members of the local community.