CHILDREN will be stepping outside the classroom and straight into Africa.

Local farmers and school children from Worcestershire and Herefordshire will have a unique chance to share knowledge and experiences with African farmers this spring in an innovative education project run by development charity Send a Cow.

The Grow It Global project will see pupils from schools in the two counties and across the UK visiting Woodland Valley Farm in Cornwall to meet a Ugandan farmer who has benefited from the charity’s help.

Children will have the chance to try out some practical growing activities with the farmers and hear first hand about how these simple techniques have changed their lives back home in Africa.

Send a Cow also hopes that the UK and African farmers taking part will benefit from sharing their own experiences, struggles and achievements, which could go on to influence their own practices for the future.

The project is supported by celebrity campaigner Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, who said: “Grow It Global is just the sort of educational project that children need.

“It gets them outdoors and growing vegetables, but with the wonderful added bonus that they are learning about food, climate change and poverty at the same time.

What better way to tackle such difficult but important issues?”

Pupils will get their hands dirty by building and planting keyhole gardens, and bag gardens which are life changing growing methods used by Send a Cow. They will have the chance to get creative with compost and manure and even get nose to nose with some of the farm animals.

All activities are designed to get children learning about where their food comes from, sustainability and climate change.

Send a Cow is one of the leading charities for hands-on development education with inspiring resources for schools.

For details visit sendacow.

org.uk/africangardens