The colourful world of a class of seven-year-olds at a primary school in Bath may be many miles from the life of hardship faced by migrant children in China, but a letter exchange set up by a local teacher has brought them much closer.

When UK teacher Elizabeth Pritchard, 29, visited the Beigaozhuang children’s drop-in centre, a Beijing-based ActionAid project, she was so moved by what she saw that she set up a letter exchange, "seeing the centre really opened my eyes" she said. The project helps migrant children deal with the psychological hardships of adapting to life in the city through after-school activities and classes.

In just six months the children exchanged letters two or three times. "The children in my class are always very excited to receive the letters as they now have specific pen-pals they write to. They were also amazed at the Chinese script – the writing was so beautiful. It has really meant that their horizons have opened up and, although we are already quite a multicultural school, it has brought the world a bit closer for them."

Eleven-year-old Zhang Yuping regularly attends the drop-in centre. She said: "I can understand about half of the letters. When I wrote back, my letter was half in English and half in Chinese. I would like to know what is her school like? How many children do they have in class? Do they have many books to read? And can they come to Beijing – I would love to show them around."

Marta Jagusztyn, from ActionAid China, added: "The letter exchange gives children from the centre an insight into the lives of people in other countries and they hope it works the same way for the children in the UK.

"Migrant children can often be lonely, confused and isolated in a city that treats migrants as second class citizens. The centre is a place where they can make friends. In a strange, unstable environment it means a lot to the children, many of whom have left their friends behind, that there are people out there who care about them."