AN OXFAM worker has returned from a visit to Rwanda where she experienced for herself the difference aid can make.

Sarah Dransfield, 30, from Charlbury, spent time with children at Rwebare Primary School.

Five years ago, she witnessed pupils gathering on the dusty floor of a burnt out classroom, which did not even have a roof, after it had been destroyed by a fire during the Rwanda genocide.

Between April and June 1994 an estimated 800,000 Rwandans were killed in the space of 100 days when fighting broke out.

But during Miss Dransfield’s visit in July, she saw how the school had been re-built and now taught almost 2,000 children.

She said: “Five years later and the sight in front of me was astonishing. Not only was each classroom full to the brim with desks and children, listening attentively to their teachers, but there were five additional classrooms that the government had built.”

The Oxfam press officer urged more people to help aid further projects like Rwebare.

She said: “A basic education is crucial to living a rewarding life.

“Yet today, more than 72m children in poor countries – the majority of them girls – are going without one. These children may never learn the skills which offer them the best chance of escaping poverty.

“The bright and enthusiastic pupils at Rwebare School were a dazzling example of how aid money can and does work to transform people’s lives.

“Aid money also helps to pay for health workers and vital medicines and items that save the lives of millions of people in poor countries around the world.”

Oxfam is campaigning for overseas aid money to be used to help the governments of poorer countries, like Rwanda, to pay for teachers and to ensure that all children get a free education.

It has launched Don’t Drop the Ball on Aid, a global online game of keepy-uppy, to call on governments to step up funding for overseas aid.

To find out more, visit dontdropaid.org