One of only two female Saab master technicians in the UK is about to leave for Africa to teach car mechanics in a village in The Gambia.

Zoe Waters, who works at Crightons Saab and Mitsubishi in Peterborough, visited the country last year on a package holiday and was struck by the poverty she witnessed. She has now decided to return to establish a mechanics’ school in a small village 30 miles from Bakau, which she hopes will provide a future for many young people.

“School for children in the village ends when they are about 10. There is no secondary school, so the bright ones go off to other places to continue their education. They rarely come back to the village, so it is gradually dying,” she says.

Iain Crighton, managing director of Crightons of Peterborough, says: “We have trained Zoe and made her a first-class technician so we would have liked her to stay. But we admire her commitment to helping people who live in such poverty, and we wish her every success.

"She is a very brave young lady to take on such a task.”