GENEROUS children at an Inverclyde primary held a special day to raise funds for their partner school in Africa.

Inverkip Primary P7 youngsters designed and created stalls to sell items they made for a fete.

And it was just the latest in a long line of fundraising carried out at Inverkip for Malavi Primary in Malawi.

Teacher Rhona Findlay explained that they have had a partnership with Malawi since 2008.

She said: “The whole school was involved in our recent special Malawi Day. While P7 were running their fete and holding competitions, the rest of the school were learning all about Malawi’s culture, language and other aspects of the country.

“Our partnership with Malawi is going strong despite communication difficulties at times.

“Inverclyde schools now have a communications team in Malawi, and these three teachers visit all of our partner schools and report on their progress and news.

“Unfortunately, there were dreadful floods in Malawi in January and February, and many roads and schools were damaged or washed away.

“So we are raising money to help with the rebuilding and repair work that is needed.” Other Malawi fundraising efforts at Inverkip Primary have included pupils Keira Whiteford and Zara Hall making and selling cakes, and teacher Andrew Osborne running the London Marathon.

The Inverkip youngsters also helped out when the maize crop in Malawi failed and the African children were not receiving their daily bowl of vitamin-enriched porridge.

Mrs Findlay, who has visited the African school to see at first-hand how donations make a difference, said: “Many of the pupils walk over four kilometres each day to go to school, and often the porridge is their only meal. The attendance drops quite considerably when there is no porridge.

“I’ve seen for myself how important this daily meal is to the school community.” See today's Tele for full pictures.