A Girl Guide is heading to Ethiopia to develop educational projects for children in rural areas.

Megan Clifford, 16, is the only Guide from the district selected for the trip, organised by Girlguiding North East England in association with Link Ethiopia. She will join other Guides from across the North for the three-week trip in August.

“We will spend four days in the capital then we’ll travel to a village in the Gonder region of northern Ethiopia where we’ll be helping to build a classroom and toilet block,” said Megan, of Idle.

“We’ll also be helping to run a summer school. We’re working with the charity Link Ethiopia which focuses on widening education opportunities out there. The wider aim is to empower people to get themselves and their communities out of poverty. Education is the only way out of poverty in this village.”

Megan has been involved in the Guiding movement since starting out as a Rainbow aged five. She went on to join the Brownies in Idle, then the Guides in Thackley and is now a Ranger and a young leader for West Yorkshire North Division. As well as helping to run the Greengates Guide pack, she is a member of a senior sector Guide unit in Eccleshill.

Megan landed a place on the Ethiopia trip following a lengthy selection process. Now she has to raise £2,500 to fund the trip and has organised a series of fundraising events.

“It will be my first time in Africa. I’m looking forward to the challenge,” said Megan. “The children we’re working with will be between four and 11-years-old.

“It will be good to work with other Guides from different areas too. Being in the Guides has taught me lots of new skills and I’ve learned to be a leader too.”

An A level student at Immanuel College in Thackley, Megan aims to be a doctor and will be applying to study medicine at university.

She has already raised £500 for her Ethiopia trip and is holding a bric-a-brac stall at Victoria Hall, Saltaire, on March 17 and Holy Trinity Church, Idle, on April 13. She is also doing bag-packing at Marks & Spencer, Owlcotes, Pudsey, on March 9 and the Five Lane Ends branch of Morrisons on April 14.