CHILDHOOD recipes feature in a charity cookbook that will help change the lives of vulnerable girls in Zambia.

More than 90 dishes from around the world are included in the first-ever Cecily's Fund Supporters' Cookbook, with proceeds going towards the Witney-based organisation's Christmas Appeal.

The campaign is aiming to raise £36,000 to help educate 900 Zambian girls, thanks to donors including Martin Marais, from Freeland, near Witney.

Mr Marais was born in the Zambian city of Kitwe, before living in South Africa until he was 14, and started giving to Cecily's Fund a few years ago.

The 56-year-old is one of several supporters from across West Oxfordshire to have contributed to the cookbook, submitting South African sweet treat koeksisters.

He said: “My grandmother used to make them, but I haven’t made them in years as it’s such a challenging recipe. I like how a lot of the recipes in the cookbook are family favourites.”

Cecily's Fund was created in memory of Stonesfield student Cecily Eastwood, who was just 19 when she was killed in a car crash in Zambia in summer 1997.

The charity has helped educate more than 20,000 orphaned and vulnerable children in the country.

Since 2016, Cecily's Fund has supported 900 girls using funding from the US-based DREAMS Innovation Challenge, which aims to reduce new HIV infections among adolescent girls and young women by 40 per cent in 10 African countries.

The scheme ends next year, but the organisation wants to continue the girls' education into 2020, with girls likely to experience early marriage and pregnancy if they are forced to drop out.

Many girls have trained as teachers and nurses thanks to the the charity, with funds from the cookbook going towards the Christmas Appeal, which ends on Friday and has raised £20,000.

Director, Cheryl Hooper, said: “All too often some of the poorest and most vulnerable children living in Africa can be overlooked because we are too consumed with our daily lives here in the UK.

"This Christmas we are asking readers to consider helping to make a difference to 900 girls in Zambia, by enabling them to have an education, something that we all take for granted.

"We’ve produced a great cookbook with tried and tested recipes which would make a really nice alternative and meaningful present for friends or family.”

To donate go to cecilysfund.org or justgiving.com/campaign/cfappeal2018