THE remains of a dismantled school library and more than 7,000 books collected from Marlow will be shipped to an impoverished African nation as part of an enormous literacy project.

Mother-of-two Lori Spragg, 47, of Oak Tree Road, engaged the “whole Marlow community” in the scheme run by charity CODEP, including schools, parents and churches.

The ultimate aim is to gather millions of books for the new £1.2 million Equiano Centre, a library and education centre in Sierra Leone and to stock the shelves of all of the nation's schools.

Lori was inspired to run the project after realising that many second hand items were left unsold at fetes and bazaars in the run up to Christmas.

She used internet forums to drum up support.

Lori said that the country's children “value books more than gold and diamonds” and have a strong desire to learn but 90% of pupils are currently illiterate.

“We are trying to get a culture of reading and learning in schools in Sierra Leone . Although children have returned to schools, following civil war, conditions are still poor,” she said.

“We are setting up an infrastructure in the country, where they are already very motivated to learn and we know given the opportunity to learn they will excel - it will leave a lasting legacy.”

On Tuesday St Peters School in Prospect Road, dismantled their library and the shelving, tables, chairs, and card indexes will be reassembled for schoolchildren in Sierra Leone.

Lori's daughter Charlotte, 10, delivered a presentation about the plight of youngsters from the nation and fellow pupils netted hundreds of books and a large collection of bibles.

Every school in Marlow has been involved, with 180 geography text books being donated by Great Marlow School, Bobmore Lane, a huge pile of dictionaries and other books from Spinfield School and around one hundred from Danesfield School as part of World Book Day celebrations.

The stash of novels, textbooks, dictionaries and other literature is being sent to the town of Waterloo, where it is hoped they will some day form part of a planned 150,000 collection for townsfolk to study.

Lori said: “The parents and children are excited that their old library will be treasured by a children in Sierra Leone.

“The shelving will help keep the books dry in the rainy season and will house some of the thousands of books collected by CODEP so far.”