The plight of needy youngsters touched the heart of Norfolk school teacher Elisabeth Louis when she visited them in Africa.

The children in Zimbabwe have to walk as far as eight miles to have chance of education - and even when they get to school the building has no windows.

Now, Mrs Louis is preparing to join a team walking the full length of the 50-mile Norfolk Coastal Path to raise money for a locally-based charity which supports Aids orphans and underprivileged children and is helping fund a new school.

She is a trustee of the Mudeka Foundation - set up by Anna Mudeka, a musician from Zimbabwe who now lives in Mid Norfolk.

Trustees visited Zimbabwe in March and met children who face the long haul to the classroom and were inspired to do the walk, which starts on Thursday and they aim to finish on bank holiday Monday.

Mrs Louis, a teacher at Barnham Broom Primary School, said: 'We want to understand what it is like for these children who do not have any choice but to walk miles to school. But we also want use our expedition along the Norfolk Coast Path from Hunstanton to Cromer as an opportunity to raise more funds, so we can help more Zimbabwean children with their education.'

Together with husband Steve and their teenage daughter, she spent two weeks in Zimbabwe and saw the successful work of the charity's child sponsorship scheme for education while discovering the terrible need for the new village school at Muda in the bush.

Work has already begun on a new school but although the foundations are dug and mud from the river bed has been used to make the bricks, only the walls have been erected due to a shortfall in government finances. Together with family and other charity members, Mrs Louis is passionate in helping to raise as much as �5,000 to finish the building.

'School is cancelled when the wind blows or it rains because it is dangerous,'

Mrs Louis - whose family attends the Hope Community Church in Wymondham - added: 'I left a part of my heart there,'

For more information and to register to join the walk, or make a donation, go to www.mudekafoundation.com/events. Under 16s taking part in the walk must be accompanied by an adult. Tel: 01603 758119.