AN ELDERLY couple have travelled to Africa to help boost education in the developing world.

Norman and Marian Jacobs, who founded their Aim Hai Trust seven years ago, set off for Tanzania yesterday morning.

The pair, aged 75 and 72, have left the comfort of their home in the West End for the town of Bomang'ombe in the Hai district of Tanzania.

Armed with educational material and health provisions, the duo will be visiting a local school to help hundreds of young pupils studying there.

Norman, a former professor of prosthetics and orthotics at Strathclyde University, started visiting the country through his job more than a decade ago.

He later joined forces with a colleague who was planning to set up a school in a nearby town.

Norman said: "I thought it would be interesting to get involved in establishing the school and my wife and I both became directors, helping with the establishment and setting it up.

"It's been running for 10 years and it is really progressing.

"After a while we realised it was going to cost a lot of money to get things done so we set up a charitable trust to help in the school but also take an interest in the wider issue of education, primary school education in the town.

"Although we started by trying to raise money for the school, we are now trying to do something more for the area.

"Both my wife and I are retired so that allows us to spend more time on this."

Norman and his wife Marian, a former director at a city housing association, both felt passionately about improving education in the country where around 80% of people live in the countryside.

Locals rarely have access to clean water and the couple have brought water purification kits, solar power kits and generators with them on their latest excursion.

Norman added: " What we're trying to do is give the children a good opportunity to progress from primary to secondary school.

"Although primary is mandatory, secondary is not and it's only the brighter students who will get there.

"We want to make that as open as we can so as many children can take advantage of that as possible.

"We're planning to bring out maps, letters, a bit of equipment to monitor the weather and some footballs too."

The pair are due to return at the end of the month and continue their fundraising for the school back in Glasgow.

For information on the Trust visit www.aimhaitrust.net