Indi Fountain, of Mowsley Road, Husbands Bosworth, will be heading to northern India on July 30 where she plans to visit schools on the outskirts of Delhi and Amritsar.

The 52-year-old intends to find out what schools in the impoverished areas desperately need so she can direct her charity efforts to the best cause. She believes basic resources such as paper and books may be the most valuable.

She will be filling her luggage with as many books as she can, which she will be donating to the schools.

The eldest of seven children, Mrs Fountain and her family moved to England from New Delhi in 1955 when she was nine. Her father worked as a coal deliverer in London before getting a job with the civil service.

She has retuned to India about eight times in the past and three of her uncles and an aunt still live there. She has experienced at first hand the poverty and caste system which still exists in the country.

Her planned charity is as yet unnamed.

Mrs Fountain said: "Education is still difficult to access for the poor in India.

"We throw paper away as if it is nothing. We do not realise how lucky we are."

Mrs Fountain, who has taught in Leicester and Harborough, is hoping to speak to local schools about her experiences when she gets back and is in talks with groups such as Rotary about shipping books to the subcontinent.