A CHARITY in East Lancashire is preparing to dispatch another vital convoy of aid to needy nursery schools in Africa.

Supporters of Burnley-based Furniture for Education Worldwide (FEW) are assembling educational equipment and toys for the Kerr Serring and Brikama schools in The Gambia.

The trailer will leave their HQ on May 20 and charity workers will head out to the country a month later to provide help on the ground.

A FEW spokesman said: “Our current project is a 40-foot container to The Gambia with equipment for two nursery schools which have nothing except bare classrooms and a blackboard.

“Later in the year containers will be going to Cambodia, Pakistan, The Gambia again and possibly Guinea-Bissau.”

The charity, established by County Cllr Terry Burns and Mike Tull, the former headteacher of Marsden Heights Community College in Nelson, has been behind 82 aid consignments to date.

One of the motivations for spearheading their work was a visit to Pakistan by the pair, where they witnessed under-resourced schools.

Some of their early donations came when second-hand furniture became available through the Building Schools for the Future programme in Burnley and Pendle but now they receive gifts from across the north-west.

Another target has been the construction of a second classroom at the Brikama nursery, in the west of the country, which has been boosted by a major financial donation from Euxton-based Busy Bodies Nursery.

Charity supporter Keith Bolam, a former teacher at Southlands High in Chorley, said: “It should be possible for the work to be complete to coincide with our next visit at the end of June.”