RESIDENTS of the idyllic moorland village of Rosedale Abbey are raising thousands of pounds to help people in one of the world's poorest areas.

Villager Moira Austin, a former nun, and her friend, the Rev Anne Jenkins of Rosedale East, who is a former Leeds parish vicar, are currently in northern Ghana working with families and make-shift schools.

They have already master-minded the setting up of a home for babies suffering from malnutrition, together with schemes for the blind, digging wells and agricultural ventures through the Tamale Diocesan Development Group (TADDEG), a charitable trust which is supported by such organisations as Bread for the World and World Aid UK and which is based at the women's home in Rosedale.

Now people of Rosedale are rallying to raise funds to finance a £9,000 all-terrain vehicle which the women can use in an area where roads are virtually non-existent.

Angela Gage, a neighbour of Moira and Anne, says: "A group of villagers have undertaken to fund-raise for the van. We have been given a bank loan which is to be repaid over four years and events are being held each month to meet the payments."

Angela, a retired adviser with the University of Hull, says the campaign has captured the imagination of everyone in Rosedale.

One of the first big events will be pancake day races on Sunday, March 2, in the Rosedale Show field, near The Milburn Arms, where there will be events for men, women, under-eights, teenagers and pensioners and which television presenter Christa Ackroyd has been asked to open.

People are asked to take along their own pancakes!

Meanwhile, at the village school, pupils have also become closely involved with the project, says headteacher Nicola Johnson.

Moira goes into the school regularly, teaching the youngsters IT and computer skills, and they have taken her scheme to heart.

"The children have adopted the charity and we even bought a cow to help one Ghana community - but it did turn out to be a bull!"

However, the beast is being used to develop a herd of cattle which will benefit the deprived Ghanians.

"It is a wonderful project and one which the children are getting a great deal from because they realise that, even in somewhere like Rosedale, we can help change the lives of people in a part of the world so far away.

"It is also beneficial to the children because it embraces geography, science and other subjects. Moira has been a wonderful asset to our school and we are delighted to be involved with her project."

The 32 pupils in the school staged a Christmas play which also benefited the appeal.

Rosedale is also having a bridge evening on March 26 at the Reading Rooms, Rosedale East, the proceeds of which are being divided between the local parish church of St Mary and St Laurence, and the TADDEG appeal.

Already the van appeal has been given donations totalling £2,000 and some villagers have agreed to make direct debits towards the monthly commitment of £227 for the loan repayment for the four-by-four vehicle, said Angela.

Moira, who was a missionary in Ghana as a sister with the Order of the Holy Paraclete, which is based at Sneaton Castle, Whitby, became a teacher and development worker in the African country.

She created 11 schools for the poverty-stricken families and two training centres where women are taught how to generate income to help their family budgets, and how to cater and cook. The two women are raising funds to provide solar-powered units in remote villages, each costing £3,500, because the hours of darkness stretch from 6pm to 6am.

They have recently written to the Rosedale communities through the parish newsletter 'Uphill, Downdale'.

In it they say that at an Anglican mission where a baby home, set up by Moira in 1986 is based, there have been 770 motherless babies of which only a hundred have survived.

They have been helped by friends who run a Catholic retreat centre and by senior Anglican clergy. Moira said: "We have been given so much help and generosity from our friends in Rosedale and Ghana."

Anyone able to help the fundraising project is asked to contact Angela on (01751) 417620.

Updated: 10:15 Wednesday, February 12, 2003