A group of medical students from the University of Exeter are heading to Ethiopia armed with a collection of teddy bears.

The students who are members of the university's medical school, based in Truro, will be volunteering in a new maternity unit in Lalibela, Northern Ethiopia.

The Teddy Bear Project was initiated by Angela Lait, senior clinical skills tutor at the university, who has been working on the project with Jo Davies. Jo said: “We were inspired to make the bears after Angela visited Ethiopia a few years ago and saw that many children there had never had a toy before. Angela had made a few bears last year to send out and the children loved them so much that we took on a bigger project this year."

The teddy bears were created by a group of staff and their relatives through the Cornwall Health Library Craft Group in Truro run by Rebecca Wright.

“We’ve been knitting and crocheting teddies frantically to get them all finished to send along with the medical students, resulting in an additional thirty or so teddies to add to the students’ baggage. Angela will also accompany the bears this year to deliver a few in person,” added Jo Davies.

The students will be combining their bear donations whilst working a very busy schedule when they arrive at the St Lalibela Hospital in supporting the maternity unit and other parts of the hospital whilst engaging with the local community.

The trip is part of the partnership between the University of Exeter and St Lalibela Hospital, following on from the team’s first visit last year. This visit resulted in one of the students, Charlie Emsden, starting ‘The Menstrual Project’ to provide clean underwear and funding to girls in Lalibela to allow them to have their periods with dignity and enable them to continue school.

This year’s trip commences on Saturday, March, 7 and is led by Professor Julie Thacker along with Dr Rob Taylor, Angela Lait, Jemima Henstridge and Alison Marchbank. They take along medicine third year students based at both Truro and Exeter; Syntyche Jonah, Chloe Staniland, Annabel Skinner, Jasmine Jose, Joe Hughes, Alex Spina and Batya Lepar. The group will be updating their journey on social media using @ExeterMed.