Bellahouston Academy pupils have moved a mountain in Swaziland.

Their fund-raising efforts on behalf of the New Hope Centre orphanage in the Aids-torn African country, paid for a local hill to be levelled and the foundations of a school house to be laid.

Tracie Hynd, who runs learning activities for the pre-school children, told a special assembly at Bellahouston Academy last month, ‘You were a God-send. We could not have done this without your help. We had to hire heavy earth-moving equipment which we could never have afforded otherwise.’

She explained that 35 children live at the New Hope Centre in Bethany near Manzini the capital. ‘They had to push aside their bunk beds so that there was room for the pre-school children to play and for the primary aged children – 19 of them – to do their lessons.’ With Bellahouston’s help and further support from the Pelham Community Church of Ontario, Canada who sent a team of skilled craftspeople to Swaziland, the school building was erected earlier his year.

Along with 9-year-old Anastasia who is one of the children in the New Hope Centre, Tracie visited Bellahouston Academy to hand over a ‘thank you’ scroll and to collect a final cheque for £1000. In total, the Scottish students have raised £3000 for the children in Swaziland.

The fundraising committee comprised Robyn Stables, Lauren Sweeney, Laura Matheson, Evelyn Rennie, Gillian Edgar, Laura McPherson and Rachael Tedescki. The girls were modest about what they’d achieved. ‘It was good fun, but hard work,’ said Laura.

They held sponsored silences, trade stalls, discos and a multitude of other events over a two year period. They also off-loaded their gash cash into a big bottle. ‘I’m very proud of what these students have done and of the support the whole school has given to this project,’ said head teacher Ian Anderson. He also praised teacher Tom McEnroe who had read about the orphanage in a copy of the LOCAL NEWS and brought the story to the attention of his second year English class.

The committee took their Swazi guests to the nearby Mosspark Primary School where the visitors had the chance to tell the story of the New Hope Centre to the youngsters there.

At both schools, Anastasia performed a dance she’d devised herself which told her own story of how she was once alone and sad when she was an orphan but how happy she is now as one of the family at New Hope.

All the children are formally adopted by the director of the orphanage, Elizabeth Hynd who is Tracie’s aunt. They are all given the surname Abraham and are being educated to become leaders of their country.

‘One in five people in Swaziland is dying of Aids,’ Tracie told the LOCAL NEWS. ‘There are an estimated 80,000 orphans in a population of 1 million. My grandfather Dr Samuel Hynd, sees around 100 AIDS patients a day and is building a clinic to try to cope with the influx of people from the countryside into Manzini.

‘There is still a lot of work to do in Swaziland and we welcome any help people in Scotland can give us.’

Scots-born Dr Hynd who is now in his 80s and was once the country’s Minister of Health, was taken to Swaziland as an infant by his missionary parents. He gained one of his several medical degrees at the University of Glasgow. His name is on the wall of honour in the award-winning Wolfson Medical School building on University Avenue. Tracie and Anastasia took time to visit the building and see his name there.

Among the other places they visited were Wellington Church in the West End and the Sharpe Memorial Church at Parkhead. Both congregations have been supportive of the New Hope Centre and of Dr Hynd’s clinic. There was not time to visit Knightswood Baptist Church which has also donated sheets and items for Dr Hynd’s existing Clinic especially.

A useful visit to Galgael in Govan gave ideas of how the New Hope Centre can meet the challenges being presented by their teenage boys. ‘These boys have been badly abused. Boys are also considered to be worthless in Swaziland because you can’t trade them for cattle the way you can girls,’ said Tracie. ‘As they get older, the boys find life much more difficult because there are no male role models around and they have the legacy of their childhood still to deal with.’

One boy who was particularly aggressive to the others, calmed down considerably when he was taught how to bend wire and create animal ornaments and key ring fobs which he decorates and sells.

While the shipbuilding skills that GalGael has as the core of its outreach work would not be of any use in the tiny, land-locked, country of Swaziland, many of the skills and the collective, supportive programmes GalGael has developed, had potential for the New Hope Centre boys, commented Tracie.