EVERY year large number of Scots flock to lend a hand in Malawi, one of the poorest countries in the world.

It's a really long journey, but it's worth it.

Many Scots go there to help build schools or to work with children in rural areas. One Scots-based charity, Mary's Meals, feeds children in more than a fifth of its primary schools.

Fiona Thomson, however, has a different aim in mind when she flies out to the picturesque southern African country later this week.

The vet will be working for a charity that aims to vaccinate nearly three-quarters of the dogs in Blantyre, the commercial capital.

The charity, Mission Rabies, says Malawi is one of the world's rabies 'hotspots'.

A single main hospital in Blantyre each year reports the highest number of child rabies deaths anywhere in Africa - a worrying figure when you consider the many other health risks faced by millions of Malawians already.

The charity plans to have vaccinated 30,000 dogs in Blantyre this month.

"It's an amazing idea, you wonder why no-one seemed to have thought of it before," said Fiona. "I've no doubt it will be a great experience."

Fiona, 26, is part of the Glasgow-based Pets'n'Vets veterinary team - which, as it turns out, has a local practice in Scotland's own Blantyre, in south Lanarkshire.

She graduated from Glasgow University three years ago and has been working as a small-animal veterinary surgeon ever since.

Her Malawi trip won't be her first volunteer experience with animals - she once went to Malaga, in Spain, to work with a charity specialising in the neutering and re-homing of animals in need.

The Mission Rabies team on the ground in Malawi will talk to local children and adults, telling them how to behave around dogs so that they do not get bitten by them.

"We'll be talking to them about general dog behaviour, and how to care for wounds, but the main thing we'll be doing is actually vaccinating the animals, hopefully before they actually contract rabies," Fiona added.

"The hope is to be able to vaccinate at least 70 per cent of the dog population in Blantyre. There are probably some 200,000 dogs in the city.

"The aim is to give the country control over rabies, rather than rabies controlling the population."

The project will target not just wild dogs but also dogs fortunate enough to have owners.

Fiona says most of the dogs in Blantyre are wild, but even in the case of those dogs with owners, there are big differences in welfare standards between Malawi and Scotland.

"They tend to be used more as guard dogs over there," said Fiona. "The relationship between people and dogs is different.

"The dogs are wilder, and they look completely different from the dogs we have here.

"But we'll be vaccinating any dogs we come across, really, even they are just privately-owned guard dogs.

"Nine times out of 10, the dogs we see will be wild dogs that are walking about the street. They are more of a threat to the population, in that they can go anywhere they want."

Trained catchers will round up the dogs in huge butterfly-style nets, to enable the dogs to be vaccinated by vets like Fiona.

"It seems that that the minute the net is over the dog, the animal tens to panic, and just to lie there and not to resist."

Fiona leaves for Malawi on Thursday, arriving in Blantyre the following day. Two weeks' hard but enjoyable work stretch ahead of her before she flies home on May 31.

"I can't wait to go," she said. "Just to visit Africa is going to be phenomenal. "From a veterinary point of view, to work with animals in a way that will benefit the human population, and having anything to do with rabies control worldwide, is just an absolute privilege."

Oliver Jackson, partner at Pets 'n' Vets, said that the link between the two Blantyres was why the firm was sponsoring Fiona to travel to Malawi "to make a real difference to human and animal health over there."

The Malawi project is being carried out alongside Mission Rabies' partner charity, Blantyre SPCA.

Luke Gamble, CEO of Mission Rabies, said: "The fact that Fiona is volunteering is fantastic and we are hugely grateful for her help.

"This project is one of the flagships of the Mission Rabies programme. The central hospital in Blantyre, Malawi, annually records the highest incidence of child rabies deaths from any single institution in the whole of Africa and the altruistic support of a vet like Fiona and The Pets'n'Vets Family means we have a greater chance of changing that."

Mission Rabies says that almost all cases of human rabies are caused by an infected dog bite and that protecting dogs is the "quickest and fastest" way to protect people and tackles the disease at the source.

According to the charity, 100 children die from rabies across - every day.

* www.missionrabies.com