UNDER PRIVILEGED children in The Gambia have been given a helping hand to get to school through the efforts of pupils in Chippenham and Bradford on Avon.

An appeal for unwanted bikes from the charity Jole Rider led to students at Abbeyfield School, Chippenham, and St Laurence School, Bradford, helping to collect nearly 400 bikes.

Some children in The Gambia have to walk up to 10 miles to school, arriving exhausted and unprepared for study. The bikes will be used to help with the students' travel.

The bikes were shipped to Africa this week after being collected at a hangar in Hullavington airfield and will arrive in The Gambia by the end of March.

A group of 16 Year 9 children and two teachers from Abbeyfield School are due to visit Jambanjelly in The Gambia in December to see how the project is progressing. They will work alongside the African youngsters learning how to maintain the bicycles.

The charity behind the campaign, Jole (pronounced jolly) Rider, has been active for only 18 months and has been working on the Bikes 4 Africa project for 15 months. Founder David Swettenham, 50, of South Cerney, said: " There are thousands of bikes sitting in sheds over here and there are thousands of children in Africa who need a bike."

When the appeal started Mr Swettenham did not know how realistic the original target of 300 bikes was.

"We advertised in the newspapers and on TV and radio and had an overwhelming response," he said. "We now have almost 400 bikes and at this rate we could send one container a month.

It costs £10 to ship one bike and £3 to restore it to a roadworthy standard. This money needs to be raised through fundraising.

Mark Fuller, assistant headteacher at Abbeyfield School, praised the eagerness of his pupils to help raise money and appealed for sponsorship to help with their travel costs. The students' next target is £2,000 and they are trying to reach this through cake sales, five-a-side football tournaments and non-school uniform days.

Pupils have found it hard to contain their excitement over plans for the trip in December. Matt Burrows, 14, of Derry Hill, helped raise awareness of the appeal by putting flyers in shop windows and posting them through letterboxes. He said: "It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and I'm very excited about going. I can't wait to see the expressions on kids' faces."

Georgina Eyre, 13, of Calne is organising a sponsored 10-mile cycle ride and 10-mile walk to raise money and also to show the difference that a bike will make on travel times.

"It will be great to see the results of the work we put in," she said.

Jole Rider's maintenance engineer Steve Thomas, 55, of Chippenham, said: "The bikes are worthless here but priceless over there."

If you would like to help sponsor the children's travel costs to The Gambia call Abbeyfield School on (01249) 464500.