Christchurch Methodist Church

Children from the Junior Church at Christchurch Methodist Church spent their school summer holidays turning waste material into saleable products.

They learned how to use sophisticated electric sewing machines. They made shopping bags and dressed rag dolls

They used the machines to put pretty and complex embroidery on pillow-cases, jeans, jean-jackets and tops.

They employed their holiday time usefully. They had fun in doing so.

And on Saturday they staged their own "recycling sale" and coffee morning. They had fun doing that as well.

And they raised 300 for the school in far-off Chania - 260 on the morning and another 40 from the sale of goods to Sunday church-goers..

This week the eyes of the Junior Church members and of their adult counterparts at Christchurch have been on the news bulletins.

Junior Church members heard about Chania when their Minister, the Rev Roger Leslie, and his wife Hilary returned from a visit to Ghana in February.

The area is desperately poor. Hilary said on Saturday: "They have blackboards. The children sit on very dilapidated benches. There is not much else. It is very basic.

"The children have to have uniforms and be able to provide their own exercise books and pencils to come to school.

"In practice, they don't need to have uniforms. Just to have clothes is enough'¦."

Now they fear Chania has been damaged by the catastrophic floods that have swept that part of Africa.

But practical help is on its way.

A photo album showing scenes at the school at Chania was on display in Christchurch hall on Saturday morning. So was an album showing members of the Junior Church hard at work during their holidays.

Junior Church helper Sheila Richardson explained that the group had been given shop material samples.

From this scrap material they had made the bags, tops and toys which filled the stalls - each pretty product proudly labelled with the name of the maker.

Catriona Dennis is 13 and attends Bexhill High School.

She had dressed a rag doll - which she had named Lavender.

She explained: "We used scrap materials. From this we have been making shopping bags and decorating tops and jeans and making toys for sale.

"We used bits of recycled stuff. It was great fun - and we learned a lot."

Charlotte Pestell is 12. She said: "We learned how to use electric sewing machines.

"They do lovely embroidery which we applied to the things we did.

"It was real fun and we enjoyed it."

Sheila Richardson said of the financial result: 2It was beyond our wildest dreams."