A HEREFORD woman who taught thousands of city youngsters is hoping to better the education of yet more pupils abroad.

Former food technology teacher Diane Bridges has been fund-raising for a community school in Zambia since her retirement from Whitecross High School and Specialist Sports College almost three years ago.

She has since collected about £9,000 and helped bring in five new teachers, improve resources and set up a feeding programme for the 130 pupils.

“The staff, parents, governors and pupils held a collection for me when I left Whitecross School,” said Diane, of Moreton-on- Lugg.

“I had an idea about giving it to a school in Africa as I wanted to be able to do something good with it.”

She was put in contact with a woman in the Zambian capital of Lusaka who mentioned that the Little Daniel Community School in Luanshya was in need of funding.

Luanshya, in the copperbelt region, was very affluent but the industry is in decline and unemployment is high. Many children are orphaned due to HIV and tuberculosis.

“When I first visited the school I found it to have five classrooms, although only three were usable,” said Diane. “There were just desks in the classrooms and I went out and bought books for them.”

Diane, aged 63, set herself a fund-raising target of £30,000 and established four aims to help the school, which caters for children aged five to 16.

The first was to provide more resources while the second was to bring in qualified staff. She also introduced a programme for pupils to get food and drink at school, and has overseen a lease being negotiated with a nearby church to develop a farm allowing them to grow crops and keep animals.

These aims have all been made possible thanks to thousands of pounds of donations from, among others, her family and friends, and those at Whitecross School, including a group of GCSE pupils who studied the project as part of a citizenship award.

Diane, a member of Hereford Baptist Church, is returning to the school shortly to deliver more learning resources.

She is also trying to establish it as a registered charity with the help of Herefordshire Voluntary Action (HVA).

Anyone wishing to donate to the school can contact Diane via Whitecross School on 01432 376080.