Volunteer sewing machine refurbisher Carol Swift had the opportunity to visit Ghana earlier this year with her daughter, and grabbed it with both hands. Together, they spent four weeks at the Reverend Alec Jones Methodist Memorial School at Cape Coast. Although not on official TFSR business, Carol took with her two of the sewing machines which she’d refurbished and even had an opportunity to show some of the school children how to use the machines.

As Carol recounts:

The gift of two Singer sewing machines from TFSR brought the lessons alive, enabling the girls and boys to examine the parts and to sew a few inches each. They were excited and thrilled. The children were a delight to be with – their keenness, energy, enthusiasm and joy were an inspiration.

The trip has clearly made a deep and lasting impression on Carol, and brought home to her the importance of the work done by TFSR volunteers in the UK.

Everywhere we saw people making enormous efforts from dawn till dusk to be self-reliant, mainly by selling what they could grow, make or buy … We left Ghana with memories of a vibrant and beautiful country and people.