A CHOIR of children and young people from Uganda is to spend a week in North Yorkshire, raising funds for a charity which helps orphaned and destitute children in the African country.

Pearl of Africa Choir will take part in workshops at schools and churches, including Ryedale School, Ampleforth College, Malton School and York Minster.

They will also busk in York’s Coppergate Centre and the stable courtyard at Castle Howard.

Andrew Moxon, Head of Performing Arts at Ryedale School, said Pearl of Africa Child Care was a UK-based charity whose main activity was raising funds for seven schools and homes run by the Molly and Paul Child Care Foundation - a Ugandan non-government organisation which provided education, food, shelter and healthcare to orphaned and destitute children in the Kampala and Masaka district.

“This is achieved through a variety of different projects, with the choir at the centre of what they do,” he said.

“The choir consists of 20 children, all selected from the orphanages and schools run by foundation, and they are between the age of 10 and 20. They are in the UK for 12 weeks, travelling the length of England, singing and leading workshops with a range of primary and secondary schools.”

He said the events in this area will start next Thursday (October 10) at his school, when there would be a morning assembly performance to lower school and then workshops with pupils, followed by a public concert in the school hall at 7pm, featuring material from the workshops, and a wide range of the choir's repertoire.

For ticket information to this event, please contact 01439 771665 or email admin@ryedale.n-yorks.sch.uk

At 11am on Friday (October 11), the choir will take part in a service at York Minster, followed at 2pm by busking at the Coppergate Centre.

The following day, the choir will take part in a workshop at Ampleforth College, followed by busking at the Castle Howard courtyard at 2pm.

There will be a public concert at Malton School Hall at 7pm on Monday, October 14, after workshops, and another concert at 6.30pm the following day at All Saints Church, Helmsley, again following workshops.