A GROUP of Wiltshire fundraisers are determined to change the future for thousands of poor children in Bangladesh.

Most girls in Bangladesh never receive any formal education and the Bangla-desh Female Academy hopes to give them the future they are at present denied.

Marion Parker, regional chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, has adopted the cause as the chairman's charity.

She said: "The dream is to build an academy in which to provide education for the very poorest girls, including orphans from six years of age who otherwise would never, ever, have any expectation of education or even know what they are missing."

Mrs Parker, from Melksham, has just returned from a trip to Bangladesh with 10 other local people to see the half-built academy, which they hope can be finished through their fundraising attempts in this country.

She said: "It just broke our hearts really because you cannot cure it all but you can make a start. To come back and realise how much we have in comparison is a very levelling experience."

Mrs Parker heard of the work in Bangladesh through Arju Miah, of the Taj Mahal Restaurant in Chippenham, who was recently awarded an MBE for his community and charity work.

He introduced her to Jamil Chowdhury, a Bangladeshi businessman working on behalf of orphans and destitute young girls in the country's interior villages.

The aim of the Bangla-desh Female Academy is not just to provide the girls with an academic education, but also to teach them how to care for themselves and their homes.

The 3,000 students the academy will be able to take will also learn animal husbandry and crop cultivation to help themselves out of poverty.

The fundraisers have already given enough money to provide life-saving fresh water pipes for several communities and a hygienic crematorium so that villagers don't have to create funeral pyres alongside rivers that provide drinking water.

To raise the £3,000 needed to finish off the academy the group have organised a concert with the help of the Theatre Royal Bath.

The event will be an unusual one, featuring music from the time of Jane Austen, with professional musicians from London.

It will include harpists, a soprano soloist accompanied by the flute and spinet and music by Mozart as well as other lesser-known composers.

Tickets to the event, which will be held in the Pump Rooms on April 16, cost £10 and are available from the theatre's box office on (01225) 448844.

To help with fundraising or make a donation, contact Mrs Parker on (01225) 791023.