OLD football shirts are being collected for children with Aids and HIV as Darlington teachers prepare to visit affected children in Africa.

Four primary school teachers will tour schools around Pretoria and Johannesburg, South Africa.

The group will fly out on May 26 and want to take shirts for 45 children at the Mohau HIV and AIDS hospice, where babies to 12-year-olds are cared for.

Project leader John Steel, school development officer at Darlington Borough Council, said: "The children love the English game and are crying out for football shirts. They love them.

"Children in England have to have the latest football shirts, leaving the older ones redundant.

"Presumably, they are then just thrown away or taken to jumble sales.

"As a gesture of goodwill, we are appealing to the public for their old shirts so we can take them to South Africa, where the children will really appreciate them."

The trip is part of this year's Teachers' International Professional Development.

Organised by the Department for Education, the scheme lets teachers travel abroad to look at other education systems.

Since 2000, teachers from Darlington have visited Hungary, Italy, the US and Canada.

Mr Steel said: "The teachers are giving up their holiday for this trip, but it is a win-win situation for all concerned."

Abbey Junior School teaching assistant Gillian McKittrick, who is going on the trip, said: "We are so fortunate in this country and often take things for granted, but to the children in South Africa it is marvellous to own a shirt from one of the English clubs."

Mrs McKittrick will be joined by Abbey Junior School teacher Louise Abbott, Tracy Frost, from Hurworth Primary School, and Mhairi Walker, of the Alternative Centre of Education.

Shirts of all sizes can be handed in to the reception of Darlington town hall or Eastbourne Comprehensive School.