A NEWPORT opticians is working with the Stow Park Church Centre in a bid to collect school items to assist disabled children in Zambia.

The store, on Newport’s High Street, is collecting supplies for four schools in southern Zambia, which all have disabled units and support around 100 pupils, through the Health Help International (HHI).

Staff at Specsavers Newport are collecting pens, pencils, pencil cases, rubbers, rulers, sharpeners, colouring-in pencils and all other back to school-related items which will be distributed evenly into 100 identical school bags.

These bags have been donated by Specsavers Newport directors, Jason Williams and Craig Mackenzie, and the collection will form part of a wider container of goods being donated to HHI container, which will leave for Zambia on August 26.

Jason Williams, store director, said: “This is such a great initiative and we just felt that we had to get involved with Stow Park Church Centre and all the work that it does with Health Help International.

“We would like to invite the local community to purchase any items that are relevant for children who attend school, and drop them into our collection bin, which will be located at the front of our store. The team here will then distribute the items evenly into the bags and make the delivery to Stow Park Church Centre, where the items will be sorted and made ready for uploading onto the container.”

The store is asking people to make donations before 5pm on Sunday, August 24.

For further details on this initiative and how you can donate school-related items, contact Clare Baker at the Specsavers Newport store on 01633 244023.