PARENTS and pupils at King’s Ely have come up with the perfect recycling solution for their old school uniform.
Members of the Uniform for Overseas (UFO) committee have been organising collections of the premium-quality items to send to schoolchildren in Africa, in areas where parents cannot afford to buy suitable clothing for their children.
Volunteers spent the day sorting and packing donated items at The Lighthouse Centre in Ely on Saturday (12) building on the success of last year’s collection, where over 300 polo shirts, 200 jumpers, 100 pinafores, 50 blazers and were collected and transported to Rwanda.
Event co-organiser, Jenny Jeffreys, said: “We had a very successful day packing hundreds of items of donated clothing, taking our total for this collection to 51 boxes of clothes and five boxes of books. This is more than twice the number of boxes sent last year and will help the Mothers’ Union in Rwanda to continue the work at their school in Kigali and within the surrounding rural community.”
The collection is now being delivered to Christian Hope International in Essex, which is shipping a container to Rwanda at the end of October.
Jenny added: “The initiative would not have been possible without the support of the local community. Horizon Retail Marketing Solutions donated use of their vans as well as warehouse storage space, The Lighthouse allowed us to use their hall for sorting and packing, Tesco’s Fruit and Vegetable Department donated all of the boxes and the Cathedral branch of the Mothers’ Union assisted with fundraising and packing.”
The group is still fundraising to raise the £1,000 required to ship the items to Africa and would welcome any donations, big or small, to help achieve this target. Cheques can be made payable to “Uniform for Overseas” and can be handed in to reception at King’s Ely Senior, Junior, Acremont or at the Old Palace.