Coffee morning for Ghana

The well-attended event was held at the home of Maureen Dent who has been inspired by the efforts of local fund-raiser Joanne Oliver.

Maureen was happy to welcome visitors throught the front door and provided a constant supply of coffee, biscuits and cakes.

She said: "It's lovely - it's been very good. The last coffee morning was very successful as well - I had one back in February - and it is all to raise money for a good thing."

Joanne, who lives in Hastings, was there to talk about the school which had no toilet facilities or running water when she first went over in

2005 as a volunteer. She has given 7,000 so far to the building project.

She said: "I would like to say thank you to Maureen - this is the second time she has held the coffee morning for me now. I am very grateful for her support and giving up time to do this. All the money raised today is going towards equipping the school when it is finished."

She went out to Ghana earlier this year and said: "In April I returned again with the hope of completing the School, which the Head Master has said will be named the Jo Oliver Day Care Centre, but as usual my expectations weren't realistic. The good news is that the toilets have been built and completed; we concentrated on these after building the lintels, walls and porch, as due to wet weather the cement was not setting, so building the roof was put off while I was there."

She hopes the roof will soon be built so that the children can move in, then the electrics can be fitted and the walls plastered. Jo has supplied the paint for volunteers to use inside and out, and also plans to arrange and pay for water to be connected.