Women offenders involved in a Community Payback project based at Llanover have turned plain pillowcases into colourful dresses for children in one of the world's most troubled countries.

The dresses have been sent to Sierra Leone in West Africa where the people are still recovering from years of civil war and are now affected by the Ebola epidemic.

The women based at Gibran - a not-for-profit social enterprise - learnt the basic sewing skills, including the use of a sewing machine, from a visiting tutor and have personalised the dresses with pockets, appliqué and colourful buttons.

The project has been made possible thanks to a partnership between Gibran and Wales Community Rehabilitation Company, part of the probation service.

David Bidgood, Community Payback Officer with Wales CRC, said it had been a great success with 24 women working with Gibran since last March.

"Previously female offenders given Community Payback orders by the court were carrying out work such as grass cutting and graffiti removal, but it was apparent that many of them had issues in their lives such as domestic violence and problems finding accommodation and these were not really being addressed," he said.

"We approached Gibran, who do a lot of support work with women coming out of prison, and they were able to provide placements for our offenders to work on a clothing recycling project. The offenders also receive support during their order and afterwards.

"It's been a real success and we've had a lot of feedback from the women. One has even managed to go on to study at university."

Jo, senior projects manager with Gibran, explained how the women on Community Payback spend mornings on learning activities which could include money management or basic skills and their afternoons sorting clothes.

Gibran's Glad Rags project sources school uniforms for children whose parents are in prison, clothing for people leaving prison with nothing to wear and smart workwear for ex-offenders preparing for job interviews.

"We believe people can change and we want to create the opportunities for them to do so," she said.

The 'Dresses for Africa' day was a special activity for the women run in conjunction with Vintage Vision, a social enterprise centred on vintage clothing which teaches people to sew and recycle clothes. Vintage Vision provided the tutor free of charge and materials were paid for by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.