SCOUTS have gone into the wilds to fend for themselves to help give a better education to tribespeople in Africa.

Boys and girls from the 33rd Oxford Scout Group in Kidlington are spending the weekend fending for themselves in the wilderness to fundraise for a tribal community in Africa.

They will be taking on the challenge with the hope of raising £750 for the Woodlands Ways Bushcraft Foundation, which will be enough to train a new teacher for the Maasai people of southern Kenya, and pay for a year’s salary.

The Scouts are spending 25 hours in the 250-acre woodland, owned by the Bushcraft foundation, just outside Appleton, near Abingdon.

Armed only with an army ration pack and a litre of water each, they will sleep in shelters which they’ll construct themselves – and even use a compost loo.

Scout leader Andrew Davis and assistant section leader James Palmer were inspired after attending a talk by the director of the Woodland Ways Bushcraft Foundation, James Ingamells.

Mr Davis said: “James and I sat in on one of his talks about his personal journey that started the foundation.

“It was a very moving, inspiring, tear jerking story, and without hesitation James and I looked at each other and said ‘sponsored event’.

“We chatted to him afterwards about our idea and he offered us the use of his site here in Oxfordshire”.

The organisation provides a range of services for tribal communities, using their unique history, skills and culture of bushcraft to preserve and assist their people.

They primarily provide aid to the Maasai in Kenya, and have a number of projects to support their community.

The Bushcraft foundation began supporting education in the region in 2011, and have since been able to provide half the funding of the two-classroom building.

To donate to the Scouts' project visit kidlingtonscoutgroup.org.uk/fundraising/sponsored-survival-weekend.