Some junior high school students in Laval have gone into business selling beads made in a Ugandan village to help poor students and community members there.

Dubbed "Learners Without Borders," the local 12- and 13-year-olds are on a mission to eradicate poverty for some Ugandan schoolchildren and villagers.

"Honestly, I feel great on the inside that I got to help out kids my age who are living such a totally different life than I am, said one student, Kishan.

Teacher Angela Kallianiotis says a presentation about Uganda led to a simple email exchange between her 112 grade 7 social studies students at Laval Junior High and children at a school near the Ugandan capital city of Kampala.

Shocking stories emerged.

"I didn't really know before that there was a war going on, and [Christian militant group the Lord's Resistance Army] takes kids and actually puts them in war," said another student, Tina.

The students also learned about the ravages of AIDS and of abject poverty in the African nation.

"I would rather die than live there," said student Alexandre. "They're very poor. They eat off the streets."

Early on, Kallianiotis's students raised hundreds of dollars for the first-ever Christmas party for their pen pals, complete with gifts. They quickly concluded more work was needed to improve the lives of Ugandans.

"Our project accomplished much more than we could have ever dreamed or hoped to accomplish," said student Samira.

The plan led to sustainable life-skill training of 40 unemployed women, and ultimately the students to make beaded necklaces and other jewellery out of varnished paper:

"I really, really like them. I actually didn't believe at first they were made out of paper," said Emilie, another student.

The students are now in business, selling a first batch of 900 items and hoping, as a start, to raise about $5,000 for the Ugandans.

"They shipped it to us and we're selling it. The money will be returned to them and from there on they could dream on and make some of their dreams reality," said Kallianiotis.

They're going to make a clinic in their school for their community. They're going to buy some land just to [grow] food," said student Gabrielle.

To sustain the project - called Helping Hands - the students are getting other schools and the community involved in dealing the regular shipments.

This project will not only continue, but the students aim to expand it and give hope not only to impoverished schoolchildren, but an entire community in Uganda.

"We're going to go to other places and try and sell them and try and encourage everyone because they're really good. They're fabulous," said Nektaria.