Readers of the Kentish Express have been thanked by African children for their help in building a new school.

The newspaper has been supporting an appeal by charity fundraiser Luke Dolby, whose six-month campaign to raise £35,000 culminated in the opening of a desperately-needed new school in the village of Mbelekete in Malawi.

The Kentish Express, part of the Kent Messenger Group, supported his appeal for donations and carried regular updates on the project’s progress.

Luke, a teacher from Ashford, said: “The people of Mbelekete are ecstatic. They couldn’t have been any more grateful.

“The school starts in January and in the meantime it is being used for conferences and meetings. It is the envy of the district.”

He set up the Build A School charity after visiting the village the previous summer and seeing that all that the children had for a school was an old, crumbling church.