A TEAM from a North-East university are heading to Sri Lanka to help rebuild one of the communities devastated by the Boxing Day tsunami.

Initially, 15 Durham University students will go to Sri Lanka for eight weeks. They will work at a pre-school at Palana West, which is being built with money raised by them.

The students will also help teach their counterparts at the University of Ruhuna -in the heart of the tsunami-hit south of the island, and also at a school at Moraktiara, which is being funded by Alnwick District Council, in Northumberland, and North-East Rotarians.

Yesterday, the students presented £5,000 to Dr Vinya Ariyaratne, chief executive of Sarvodaya Shramadana - the group leading the reconstruction of Sri Lanka.

Schools and residents in Durham have got involved in the project and the students will even bring across gifts from the university's nursery to give to children at the pre-school.

Project leader Professor Joy Palmer-Cooper has just returned from Sri Lanka. She said: "We are planning to adopt and help to support, revitalise and rebuild this entire community, making an impact on the lives of every person within it in some way and on the future of the young in particular.

"We aim to ensure that all children in the area, regardless of whether or not they were orphaned by the tsunami, have access to a complete education to the age of 16 or 18."