A FORMER pupil of Hermitage Academy is giving up her summer holiday to travel to Rwanda to teach children there.

Louise Wilson, from Cardross, is hosting a family ceilidh in the village this weekend to raise funds for her work with the 'Together in Sport' charity in July.

Louise, who has been a fully qualified primary school teacher for the last three years, will spend two weeks teaching at the Faith and Hope School in the country's Gako district.

Louise said: "The plan is to bring different teaching strategies to the school and help the staff become more creative in their teaching style.

"In addition, the school is also piloting a girls’ hub where young women and girls from the local community can become trained in skills such as crafts, seam stressing, hairdressing and nail art.

"This will allow young girls to stay in school for longer and when they leave, they will have the necessary skills to start an enterprise project of their own and earn more money to help their families.

"I feel that in 2018 it is shocking that there are still parts of the world where females are still considered second-class citizens. I want to help the young girls in this country achieve their potential as I have had the good fortune to have so many wonderful opportunities to do anything I wanted with my life."

Only a very small percentage of girls living in the Gako district go on to secondary education at the end of their time at primary school, down partly to financial constraints and partly to cultural expectations that women should work out in the fields or as maids for more wealthy families.

Together in Sport Rwanda (TiSR) ultimately aims to build a girls’ vocational hub within the community of Gako for vulnerable young women who are or have been unable to participate in any further education after P6.

The main objective of the proposed hub (to be named ‘Girls’ Space’) would be to provide young women with the vocational skills identified by women in this area as being the most useful, and most likely to increase their opportunities for paid employment. The skills of cooking, sewing, hairdressing and nail work were those deemed most likely to enable young women to start their own small businesses.

Louise, her mum Judy and sister Elizabeth completed the 24-mile Kiltwalk from Glasgow to Balloch in April, raising more than £2,000 for the Rwandan school where she'll be teaching next month.

The next fund-raising event is a family ceilidh in Cardross Parish Church halls this Saturday, June 9 at 7.30pm.

It's a bring-your-own-bottle event, but a light supper is included in the ticket price.

Tickets (£10 for adults, £5 for school age children and £25 for a family of two adults and two children) are available from Cardross Parish Church, or from Judy Wilson on judy@judyfamily.plus.com or 0788 449 6257.