DOZENS of kind-hearted school kids are set to take on an eye-opening challenge 7500 miles from Glasgow.

Pupils from Knightswood secondary school will travel to Malawi in September to help renovate a secondary school.

PE teacher Craig Shields will travel with a handful of other staff and 23 kids to Blantyre in the South of the country for two weeks.

During their trip they hope to renovate classrooms at Lunzu Secondary, a boarding school and create an outside seating area for pupils.

The school also currently has two dormitories for boys but only one for girls, and the kids are hoping to start work to build a second one.

The amount of work they can do hinges on how much money they raise before they go.

Each child is hoping to raise around £1600 to cover the cost of the trip and help with the work.

Craig Shields, Knightswood PE teacher said: "They are looking to explore what poverty means and how it affects a community in Malawi, and what we can do as people to tackle that and to be responsible citizens.

"We are looking to explore similarities between Lunzu secondary school ad our own school.

"We will also visit a primary school when we are out there, do a bit of work with them for example reading groups and we will also be visiting an orphanage to do the same thing.

"It's going to be a great experience for the kids, and they've done a huge amount to raise money so far."

All the children have taken part in several bag packing challenges at local supermarkets on Saturdays to raise funds for the trip.

They have also held individual fundraising challenges including race nights and sponsored activities.

James Lowrie, a 16-year-old student at Knightswood drama school is one of the lucky 23 pupils going to Malawi.

He said: "I thought the trip would be a really good opportunity to experience other cultures.

"The chance to go to another country seems like a good one and I think we could all learn a lot from it.

"To go there and see how different it is from where we live will be interesting. I think they might be more resilient than us, it will be a good chance to learn new things too."

Imogen Walker, also 16, will be joining James on the trip and said:"We're going to show them how we do things but also learn about how they work and how they do things, so it will be a bit of an educational exchange.

"It will be good to speak to people the same age as us too.

"Although we will come from very different places, a lot of our outlooks will probably be quite similar."

To donate to the kids' Malawi fund, contact Knightswood Secondary school on 0141 582 0160.