Parishioners of St Peter's Church, Winchester, are helping to bring literacy to a country where many cannot read.

Cash raised at the Catholic church will go to fund a programme of learning by radio broadcast in Honduras.

Des Le Grys, who made the appeal at masses on Sunday, explained: "Honduras is a forgotten country but the parish funded the building of a clinic for the 250,000 people of El Progreso, who, until then, had no reasonable health care."

This was part of the St Peter's scheme, Covenant with the Poor.

The greatest current need, Mr Le Grys said, was for funding of teachers.

"In Suyapa and outlying communities in the El Progreso area, the incidence of illiteracy is 80%, which makes desperately poor people even more vulnerable," he said.

"Outlying villages will be given radios and via Radio Progreso, the Jesuits' radio station, the teacher will give a one-hour lesson on literacy every day.

"Every Sunday, people will walk up to 10 miles from the mountain to the Suyapa parish where the teacher will give them tests and exercises and assess their progress."

The teacher would later travel to communities and assess students' work. The maximum number of students each teacher could realistically cope with was 120 but some 5,000 people had voiced an interest in enrolling.

The programme would be open to children and adults and a qualified teacher would cost £3,000 each year to cover salary and costs.

The amount raised on Sunday was £2,287.