Charity sending out school bags after Jamaica hurricane

About 400 bags have been sent out to Jamaica

A charity based out of a farm in Somerset is sending out humanitarian support in the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa.

School In A Bag in Chilthorne Domer has been supporting aid campaigns for 15 years, and has operated in 61 different countries in that time.

Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica last week, before making its way across the Caribbean to Haiti and Cuba, claiming at least 49 lives in its path.

Founder Luke Simon has said his charity would get help to the people "whose lives have been so affected by the devastation".

Mr Simon was inspired to start his charity after his brother died in Thailand in 2004 during the Indian Ocean tsunami, and said he wanted the repay the kindness of strangers during that time.

He said: "We've always wanted to be involved in children's education and we created a school in the bag, and as it's grown we've been very fortunate to utilise the farm that the barn that we work in is - an old Somerset cider barn.

"But the big agricultural barn is now a warehouse full of rucksacks and stationery and racking and boxes and tape."

Luke Simon set up the charity

Mr Simon said he had been working with the Lena Marshall Foundation in Grenada, when he asked if the charity needed support in Jamaica following the hurricane.

"The Lena Marshall Foundation will work with both the Ministry of Education in Granada and Jamaica to then get the school banks into Jamaica for the children whose lives have been so affected by the devastation."

He added this initial despatch of 400 bags is a "trial", and expects to send more kits as they pack more of them at their warehouse. because of the "colossal" impact of Hurricane Melissa.