Two Oxfordshire student friends are taking time out from their studies to help disadvantaged street children in Uganda.

Jon Room, 19, and his friend, Robert Davies, 20, pictured left and right, are returning to the east African country to continue their support for a charity project founded by two former churchgoers in England.

Duncan and Mary Kibaya, who met through a church group in England, set up the scheme after returning to Mr Kibaya's homeland.

Working in the district of Masaka, two hours' travel from the capital of Kampala, they started taking food to boys living rough on the street once a month.

After two years, they increased their aid by housing 32 of the destitute youngsters in a local church.

The couple now hire people to cook and teach the boys at a school set up inside the church. They also raise funds to pay the fees for the street children to go through secondary school, and have recently built a larger home to take in more youngsters.

The couple receive support from the church group Ichthus and sponsorship for each boys' schooling, mostly from families in the UK.

Jon, from Cassington, who is studying sports sciences at the University of Glamorgan, and Robert, from Long Hanborough, a geography student at Cambridge University, both worked as volunteers for the project between March and July last year.

Now they need to raise £1,000 each to cover the cost of their flights, injections and their keep while returning to help the Kibayas.

Jon, who attended Bartholomew School, Eynsham, said he and Robert, a former pupil of the Henry Box School, Witney, became involved in the project through a friend who is a member of the same church group as Duncan and Mary. Taking a year out after their A- levels, they considered their options and opted to go to Uganda.

Of their plans to return in June for three months, Jon said: "Robert and I are hoping to raise the money in many different ways, hopefully from donations, as well as from our local church.

"We have become involved in this project because we see it as a worthwhile thing to do. We both have seen the need that is out their and we want to do something about it.

"These people are in such a desperate situation, which is so hard to imagine when you live here, in a nice part of Britain. Yet they need our help and we want to try to do at least something about that."

Anyone wishing to help the pair in their quest can contact Jon on 01865 880773.