I can now see most of my library at school again, although we must have at least another 1,000 books strategically 'hidden' in the far corner waiting to be processed and about the same in a cupboard in the ladies staff toilets!! My very brief relief at being able to get to all the shelves withut breaking my neck was foolish as by Friday we had 7 more boxes completed and stacked up ready to go and I have 6 more boxes to take in!

Help with the processing has come from many angles including Pewsey Time Bank members offering their time (I know I shall never be able to repay the hours used but it doesn't seem to matter!!), staff at school (one of whom was off work for a week after putting her back out lifting a very heavy box of books!) and pupils including several of the IB students who are amazing working at an amazing rate, which will count towards their community service hours whilst they re-live their early years reading the books for little ones. So as you can see, not only are we helping Zambia we are also giving an opportunity to others to do something worthwhile that they can put on their cvs.

Books are coming from all angles and parts of the country - Derek shouldn't have been born in Scotland , it is such a long way to transport books here! Two local charity shops are passing all their book stock to me and other schools in the area have been sending old text books which are still in good condition. Any books that we cannot use we have been selling on Amazon and have made around £60 towards the actual building. We have also been selling biscuits at school and have managed to raise another £40. All these small amounts put together will actually help to make it all a reality.

I am meeting next week with Sue Grigg who has a small trust fund that she uses to help charities and she is coming to talk about the work we are doing and maybe sponsor us in a small way - I am hoping to get her to buy some footballs and maybe some new sporting and Aids awareness/ healthy lifestyle books for the library.

If anyone is any doubt about this project coming to fruition don't be - you only have to look at all the books we have so far to know this is really going to happen. 2,500 books down and just another 7,500 to go to make an amazing facility for the youngsters so watch this space.

Additional thanks go to the 2000 books donated so far from Scotland. In the past few weeks they have made the journey south travelling to Marlborough for stamping and storage.  A big thank you to Shelagh Walsh for collecting books from Grangemouth High School and also to Beaconhurst High School for their donation of textbooks. Thanks also to Alan and Marion Keir and Morag and Ian Campbell who kindly transported them

Anne Stokes

Library Coordinator