CHERITON Fitzpaine Ladies Organization (CLEO) welcomed Penny Somerville, who lives in Sandford, to its April meeting.

Penny's title was "From the Dusty Soil", a talk about teaching art in an Indian rural school.

Penny hates the winter cold, wet and dark skies, so when she retired, she began going to India in the winter months.

She found her way to a very special school in the foothills of the Western Ghats mountains amongst the rubber and coconut trees and worked there as a volunteer art teacher.

Penny is a retired art school lecturer, teaching graduates and postgraduates in the applied arts, and specialises in architectural glass.

To work with Indian children from very deprived backgrounds was a big step change, but a very important part of the transition from her working life in academia in the UK to living and working in the very basic conditions in rural India.

Through slides, the audience was transported to a vibrant, warm and very different environment, where the children were self-disciplined, and valued education.

At the end of her talk, Penny answered many questions, one of which was the future for the young people.

The boys were usually able to find employment, although the school could not pay for them to go on to further education, but many of the girls were collected by their parents early, so that they could be married to men they had never met.

Mary Nunn