London, UK, June 1, 2006 – AN AFRICAN school where two North-East teachers were murdered by terrorists is to benefit from fund-raising by their friends.

Aid workers Richard and Enid Eyeington were shot dead by anti-western Islamic rebels in the breakaway east African nation of Somaliland, in October 2003.

The attack took place at the compound of a school where 62-year-old Mr. Eyeington took over as headteacher in September 2002, in the village of Sheikh, 87 miles north-east of the capital Hargeysa.

Mr. Eyeington, from Pelton Fell, and his 61-year-old wife, originally from Fencehouses, both near Chester-le-Street, worked in Africa for more than 30 years, bringing up their children, Mark and Louise, on the continent.

Chester-le-Street Rotary Club will donate all the money from its meeting on June 30 to the SOS Hermann Gmeiner Sheikh Secondary School, in Somaliland.

There will also be a presentation on the couple's achievements in Africa.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Eyeington attended Chester-le-Street Grammar School, along with Rotary Club president, Brian Corker and his wife Jean.

Mr. Corker said: "We were very good school friends of Richard and Enid, who always said they wanted to be missionaries in Africa.

"After both qualified as teachers, they devoted their lives to helping African children.

"Unfortunately, they were shot at the school which they were restoring at the request of Lord Attenborough, who had asked them to oversee the restoration.

"It was very sad and I have decided to devote our meeting at the end of June to their memory."

Relatives, friends and school colleagues of the pair are invited to attend the event, to be held in the Chilton Country Lodge, at Chilton Moor, near Houghton-le-Spring.

Four men, thought to be part of a terrorist cell known as El Itihad, which killed an Italian nun the previous week, were convicted of the murder of the Eyeingtons, last November, and sentenced to death by firing squad.

Verdicts of unlawful killing were recorded at an inquest into their deaths, staged in London, in December.

* Tickets for the charity event, which also includes a meal, are 10 and can be booked via Mr. Corker, on 0191-388 2913.

Source: The Northern Echo