Ref. 31009-97A SWINDON woman has been touched by the plight of a Kenyan school where there are no books for the children and teachers are lucky to have a blackboard in their classrooms.

Former teacher Helen Thomas, 63, was so moved by what she saw on a trip to Kenya and Rwanda that she has launched her own aid mission.

She travelled in February with her husband Eddie, 64, a water engineer who works for Christian charities. His job was to investigate how easily it would be to install a new water supply system into the region.

Helen, from Lawn, who has worked as a supply teacher at both St Joseph's and Churchfields schools, decided to go along for the ride.

"Normally another engineer would go with Eddie, but the space was free and I had never been to Rwanda before so I went with him," she said.

"I know Kenya quite well but Rwanda is very different, it is a very sombre place, having just marked 10 years since the genocide there.

"It is a very tight society, the people are very reserved, mainly because the people responsible for the genocide are still living amongst them. Few of us here would have any comprehension of what that must be like."

The couple travelled to numerous towns and settlements across the Bogesera region to look at the water supply.

Some settlements built to house those who fled to neighbouring countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo were constructed without water supply.

Fortunately the roads in Rwanda are in a reasonable state, and all corners of the country can be reached in just two or three hours drive from the capital, Kigali.

It was in Rwanda, where Helen first witnessed the difficulties experienced by the schools.

"I met one child and he was carrying an exercise book. I looked inside and it was an exercise book for all his lessons. It was covered in scrawl and writing in all directions for all his different subjects."

In Kenya, Helen visited a school in Machakos where conditions were far from ideal.

"The walls were falling away, and if they were lucky some classrooms had a blackboard.

"I asked the headteacher if there was anything I could do, and he said: 'I need books to try and get the children to enjoy reading'.

"So when we returned to Nairobi, I brought three books and sent them to the school."

It was the enthusiastic response that Helen received from the Kenyan school headmaster when she returned home to Swindon that sparked off her plan to send more books.

"I placed a message at my church, Immanuel, and in the parish magazine and got a wonderful response," she said.

"Now I have sent off some 400 books from dictionaries to reading books.

"I sent several boxes off in April and it takes about two months by sea-mail so I am hoping for a response soon."

Helen has worked in schools all over the world, while her husband used to work for engineering company Halcrow at Burderop Park near Chiseldon.

Anthony Osborme