Volunteers from Malvern will be visiting the remote reaches of Thailand on an aid mission.

The Parkside Mission Trip to Thailand is a project by the Parkside Church, a local house church.

It already supports missionaries in Thailand, near its northern border with Burma, and church pastor John Tinnion, of Bronsil Drive, has already visited the area twice.

He said the aim of the project is to help the Shan, Akha and Karen peoples, who suffer from problems of exploitation and child labour.

"You know the saying, give a man a fish and he's fed for a day, teach him how to fish and he'd fed for a lifetime," said Mr Tinnion. "That's the principle we operate by. We go out there and we help to develop things like fish farms, mushroom farms and mango orchards."

The group is planning to send about 15 local people to Thailand next Easter, including some young people.

These are likely to include members of the TG's committee, which was set up to provide a youth centre in Malvern in memory of young skater Tim Greenwood.

"We want to give Malvern young people the chance to be contributors as well as consumers," said Mr Tinnion.

To help raise funds for the trip, a table-top sale is being held at 10am tomorrow (Saturday) at Lyttelton Well, Church Street, Malvern.

For more details about the event or the trip, call Mr Tinnion on 567172.