ON a blowy rainy February evening it was a delight to see photographs of the beautiful African country Sierra Leone.

Our speaker Mr Read, with his wife, took us on a journey of his experiences while living and working in Sierra Leone.

The country is rich having huge supplies of minerals but like so many developing countries, until a stable government was in place, the country as a whole could not benefit from such wealth.

Mr Reid had spent a long period in the 70s teaching the children. The children were eager to learn and Mr Reid used all his skills to manage class sizes of 96. Realising that school buildings were needed he began a project to raise funds to build classrooms.

Some years later his contacts with Sierra Leone are still strong.

Liaising with a local teacher who teaches at Great Barr School, surplus text books and equipment from the Birmingham school have been sent to the children in Sierra Leone who were desperate for books. A student exchange programme established gives the opportunity for pupils to share their very different experiences of learning.

Mr Reid and his wife returned to the small village where he had worked, and extended the project he had started by requesting from friends and family any old sewing machines, which he shipped out so the ladies of the village were able to sew garments for their own families, and then make clothing for sale at the local market, producing cash for the ladies to buy food and more material to continue their entrepreneurial projects. Wonderful photos of happy smiling faces of beautiful children brought the presentation to an end. Thanking Mr & Mrs Read, it was noted how humbling it was to see and understand how small communities in countries far away, with very little material assets, appear to embrace life to the full and be so appreciative of the smallest offer of kindness.