Pencils, soap and leaky roof - all sorted!

The evening also hopes to raise enough money from the evening to repair a classroom roof at the School.

Mark Hayter made the request for pencils, spectacles and soap for the visit that he and fellow traveller Sherwood Elcock were making to the small town of Cueibet (pronounced SHWAYBET) in South Sudan.

Cueibet Diocese has a corrugated iron roofed cathedral slightly smaller than Dinton church, and a school with mud block walls and leaky corrugated iron roofs, which caters for 900 pupils (up from 200, 5 years ago).

Richard Willan from the Nadder Valley takes up the story:

"We only learnt this by chance because we went to a presentation by Mark and Sherwood, the Nadder Valley’s answer to Stanley and Livingstone, in November at Bishopstone.

"We were particularly struck by the school’s very modest requirements of £2,000 to keep itself water tight in the coming rainy season (up to ten inches of rain per month). A small amount when compared to the money our various PCCs have recently raised, spent, or are about to spend on the churches in Fovant (£29,000) Sutton Mandeville (£59,500), Compton Chamberlayne (£45,000)

"We have asked Mark and Sherwood to come and repeat their presentation and you will need to bring your wallets and purses because we are hoping that we can raise a minimum of £10 from each of you making £250 which is the amount needed to make one classroom water tight and possibly stock proof*.

"Compton Chamberlayne Village Hall holds a maximum of 60 people, so who knows, we might be able to raise enough money to make two classrooms weather proof. If we raised £2000 we could make the whole school water and livestock* proof."

Richard says if you can't make the talk, he is still happy to receive your donations that can be BACSed to:

Salisbury Diocesan Board of Finance no 2 Account
Sort code 30-97-41
Account No 3084584 using the reference ‘Pencils’