THE Lions Club of Tavistock and locally based Operation Sunshine are joining forces in an appeal to help people in Zimbabwe.

From tomorrow (Friday) and this weekend donations of packets of dried rice and tinned meat or fish to be sent to Zimbabwe are being sought.

Operation Sunshine is a Christian charity which collects, sorts and packs good quality second-hand clothing, household goods, tools, craft materials, medical and educational supplies.

Started in 1981 in Exeter, it has been working in the Tavistock area for 26 years. Seven 40ft ships containers were sent to Africa last year with clothing, food, school furniture, educational and medical supplies, seeds, tools and building materials for the sick and destitute in North and South Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

A fully voluntary charity, every penny raised or given goes direct to buying the containers and transporting the goods to their final destinations.

It is estimated that the total cost for the next container will be in excess of £9,000 so any financial contributions will also be gladly received.

The Lions Club has been helping pack the Operation Sunshine containers for more than 15 years but this is the first time it has asked for urgent donations.

Collecting points will be set up tomorrow at Somerfield from 10am until 2pm and on Saturday from 9am to 4pm, and at Morrisons from 9am to 4pm on Saturday and 10am to 4pm on Sunday.

The donations of food and other goods will be loaded on Valentine's Day and few weeks later delivered to Operation Sunshine's partners in New Hope Villages, Zimbabwe.

This project supports many orphanages and schools caring for children who have been abandoned either through poverty or because they have been orphaned by the AIDS virus.

Lions club member Mark Warne said it was very rewarding to be involved in packing containers for Operation Sunshine and a few weeks later to receive photographs of the smiling faces of people unpacking them at their destinations.

Tavistock Lions are delighted local supermarkets have agreed to help the appeal and are asking people on their weekly shop to please buy an extra packet of rice or a tin of fish or meat and drop it into the collecting points or make a donation toward the transport cost.