A St Albans-based charity for deaf children is raising money for a bus which they aim to drive to a deaf school in The Gambia.

Kashmiri and African DeafChildren's Trust (Kadect) wants to provide a minibus to help with school transport, and will drive it to Africa in an effort to raise awareness. They decided it would be more financially advantageous to buy the minibus in Europe, as it would be hard to find reliable minibuses locally in The Gambia for the same price, and are aiming to raise £10,000 in total.

Kadect was founded in 2001 by Mohammed Akhtar, who runs the Kadect charity shop in Hatfield Road and has a deaf daughter and two deaf grandchildren.

Remi Bumstead, 29, will drive the bus from the Kadect shop in St Albans to France, then drive through Spain, Morocco, Western Sahara, Mauritania and Senegal before finally arriving at The Gambia.

After becoming involved with the charity through his parents, Remi, who works as a filmmaker, travelled to The Gambia with Mohammed to make a video about a deaf school there.

He said: "While I was there I was speaking with the staff and they told me there are still many more deaf children in the rural villages who have no way of getting to the school, and no way of getting an education because the local village schools don't have the resources for deaf children.

"Deaf children are just left at home with no opportunities."

The campaign also has the support of the Heathlands School for Deaf Children in St Albans, which Mohammed's daughter and is grandchildren attended.

Remi said: "We are in the process of funding the bus. Some of the teachers from Heathlands went to The Gambia earlier this year and they are also fundraising for the bus."

The charity is hoping to be ready to drive the bus to The Gambia in November or December this year. Remi will drive the bus with one of his friends who lives in Berlin and another friend who is a French mechanic.

During the journey, Remi plans to make a documentary of the trip to help raise awareness and continue to raise funds for the charity.

To support the project, go to https://www.goldengiving.com/fundraising/jangabus