Toys are being collected at shops around Oxford to send to children in refugee camps on the edge of the Sahara Desert.

An estimated 75,000 children live in makeshift camps in Algeria, where families have been stranded for 25 years since the Moroccan invasion of Western Sahara.

A group of charities including Oxfam, War on Want, the Fire Brigades Union and One World Action have joined together to collect toys and send them to the camps. The Oxford Woodcraft Folk and the Oxford Swindon and Gloucester Co-operative Society are supporting the campaign and have organised collection points for toys at Co-op supermarkets, Motorworld Garage, in Iffley Road; Oxford Fire Station, in Rewley Road; the Co-operative Bank, in New Road, and the Uhuru Health Food Shop, Cowley Road.

For more information go to www.saharatoys.org.uk or call Jane Alexander on 01865 454114.