MORE than 100 sewing machines were collected for a project which aims to help some of Africa’s most needy communities in enterprising ways.

In January, the Rotary Club of St Asaph made a plea through the Journal for old sewing machines.

Two years ago, the club collected 154 hand-operated sewing machines which were then refurbished and sent to specialised training centres in Malawi and Tanzania. This time, 106 were collected.

Tom Yuille, president of the club, said: "Thanks to the publicity in the Journal and Denbighshire Free Press, we were able to collect both hand operated machines and electric ones.

"As before, many of these machines had been in families for many decades. People were pleased to see the machine go to a good cause.

"On this occasion, the machines were donated to a charity called Krizevac, based in Staffordshire. Krizevac also send their sewing machines to Malawi and that charity trains individuals to refurbish the machines, which are then donated to men and women who have been trained in order to set up a tailoring business.

"The last of these machines were delivered to Krizevac in April."

Members were also able to deliver five Treadle machines to the Tools for Self Reliance workshop in Edinburgh.

Tom added: "They were very keen to have these as their partners in Malawi found them particularly useful as they work in areas with no or very erratic electricity supply."