A North London charity was today preparing to host a group of Palestinian schoolchildren after forging links with a town on the outskirts of Jerusalem.

The Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association (CADFA) is dedicated to promoting respect for human rights in the Arab town of Abu Dis which has been cut off from Jerusalem by Israel's controversial security wall.

Following months of fund-raising by the charity, eight schoolchildren, two headteachers and a maths teacher from the town will visit London this month.

The aim of the visit is to broaden the children's horizons because their world has become increasing confined since the security wall was built three years ago.

"Their life in Abu Dis is like living in a prison, with a wall cutting through the town on the west side, cutting them off from the cinema, the swimming pool and all the leisure facilities of the middle of Jerusalem.

"On the other side, the open land of Abu Dis has been taken away to build a huge Israeli settlement. Construction work has already started to build another wall which will cage the town in even more."

Around 40 children in Abu Dis took English classes at Friendship House, a community centre sponsored by CADFA, and four boys and four girls were eventually chosen to represent the others on the London trip.

Norma Rana, a retired teacher from Netley School, Camden, who taught English in Abu Dis in the New Generation School and in Friendship House, said: "They are such lovely children - so friendly and so motivated to learn. We will all learn a lot from them."

This is cache, read story here