AN Exbourne teenager is hoping to fulfill her ambition of spending part of her gap year teaching children in Africa through music and drama.

Anna Snellgrove of Exbourne, who is 18, is taking a gap year before going to university to study music and drama.

Gap Project Trust ? a non-profit organisation specialising in providing voluntary work projects for gap year students ? has given Anna the opportunity to teach children English for five months in the town of Morogoro in Tanzania.

However, Anna has to raise more than £1,900 in sponsorship, before she will be able to set off for Tanzania next February.

Anna said she was going to take her flute to Tanzania, as it would fit nicely in her suitcase, but she was also hoping to get some practice on the very different African flutes and other instruments while she was there.

?I have always wanted to go to Africa ? and particularly to look after children,? she said.

Anna, a student at Okehampton College studying Music, Dance and English, said many of the youngsters she would be teaching in Tanzania would be mentally disabled.

Anna said she was offered three options by the Gap Project Trust, a placement in a more Westernised school, an in-between placement or the toughest, most different living and teaching experience.

Anna said: ?They asked if I could live a bit rough. I said ?yes? and they told me there is running water and electricity there ? but it?s not always working.?

Anna will have to complete a short TEFL (teaching English as a foreign language) course before she leaves for Africa and has already secured a job for three months this summer, as an au-pair for a family near Verona, Italy, to get childcare experience in a foreign country.

Anna has already raised around £800 towards her trip and recently received a donation from the Rotary Club.

Sponsorships forms can be found at the 1st Class Cafe in Exbourne Village Hall, on Monday and Friday mornings.