Is your garage or garden shed full of tools you no longer need?

Would you prefer them to be sent to Africa to help people with their construction or agricultural projects, than throw them away?

Then look no further than Tools for Africa!

The project, launched by Saundersfoot Rotary Club earlier this year, has been very popular with the local community says Steve Duckworth, the club’s international team leader.

“We’ve had a great response, and had all sorts of items given to us,” he said.

“Some people have donated the entire contents of their sheds!”

In fact, the project has been so successful that the club has now teamed up with Pembrokeshire County Council to offer a collection container at Crane Cross waste and recycling centre.

Donations of garden rakes, spades, hoes, trowels, dibbers, shears and forks are welcomed, as well as manual construction equipment such as chisels, shovels, hammers, pick axes, sledgehammers, and others.

Electrical items are not accepted and neither are handsaws, as there are limited facilities to sharpen them in Africa.

Steve said all items are refurbished to a very high standard before being sent abroad.

“We send all our donations to the Tools for Sustainability group in Crickhowell which has links with a community project near Llanelli, where they rub them down, re-paint them and refurbish them so that they look brand new,” he said.

The tools are then placed into purpose-made wooden crates made by a youth group in Milford Haven and shipped abroad, mainly to Rwanda.

Clr. Cris Tomos, Cabinet Member for the Environment and Welsh Language, praised the scheme saying it was an ‘excellent example of ensuring that old tools are refurbished and recycled to be used by communities and families across Africa’.

Clr. Tomos added: “I am keen to see additional Waste and Recycling Centres gathering the old tools and working with the Rotary Club to achieve even greater successful levels of activity in Africa.