CONGLETON people are being asked to support a building project for desperately-needed school classrooms for hundreds of young refugees.

The traumatised youngsters have set up home in a village in The Gambia after fleeing from their homeland in war-torn Sierra Leone.

The children are living in the remote community of Bambelley, where two Congleton women hope to build a number of classrooms to allow the youngsters to receive an education.

The project is the latest initiated by Mae Winterton and Carole Downes, who have transformed the lives of thousands of African children since setting up the charity Schools for Gambia.

Mae, from Congleton, and Carole, from Mow Cop, need to raise £6,500 towards the cost of building a six-classroom extension to the village school, which itself is in danger of collapse.

They also plan to renovate the mud-built school itself, as well as sinking two wells in the village and setting up a feeding programme.

Another village, Kinta Kunda, has also been earmarked for help, in the shape of a school classroom block for children currently taught in the open air.

Mae and Carole have just returned from The Gambia, where they have been checking on the progress of a scheme to renovate and extend a school on the island of Jinack.

''Because of the war in Sierra Leone a lot of children have fled into The Gambia,'' said Mrs Winterton.

''The refugee children we saw at Bamballey were in such a state of shock - they were expressionless.

''They have been so traumatised by what they have seen and been through, and quite a few of their family members have been killed.

''As well as building six classrooms for the refugee children we want to repair the school, which is almost falling down and is highly dangerous for the children to be inside.

''We saw only one exercise book and two boxes of chalk in the whole school, and the children write with pieces of pencils.''

Mae and Carole have won support for the classroom project from a group of Germans who support Schools for Gambia, and have pledged to fund half the cost of the £12,500 scheme.

''I am due to go back to Bamballey at the end of April with money to buy materials for the foundations of the new classrooms in order to get the project under way,'' said Mrs Winterton.

''These children have no education, and if we can get them into school it will take their minds off the traumas they have been through.''

Anyone who would like to make a donation to Schools for Gambia or organise a fund-raising event please ring Mae on 0126-272361 or Carole on 01782-516808.

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