Bedales students spend half-term helping schools in Swaziland

PETERSFIELD, U.K. - Nov. 19, 2013 - PRLog -- For the sixth year running, Bedales sixth form students travelled to Swaziland over half-term to help various projects in schools and orphanages.

In the months prior to the visit, the students worked hard to raise money to fund the work in Swaziland and raised a total of £32,000.

The twenty students and four teachers began the week’s visit at Mbalenhle School, which has come a long way since Bedales first helped to install running water in 2007. This year the students helped with the development of four new staff quarters and a new home economics classroom.

The students then went on to help install water at two schools in the rural central north of the country; Mnjoli High School and Mnjoli Primary School. The money they had raised was spent on drilling and commissioning a 150m bore hole, buying pipes, a 10,000 litre tank, paint and many other equipment and resources needed for the project work.

Commenting on the visit, Bedales sixth form student Juliette Perry said: “We successfully provided clean safe water to this community – where they had previously been drinking from a stagnant lake. This involved digging nearly 400m of trenching for pipes and power cables and mixing 1000 litres of concrete by hand. We also painted the entire primary school – which was hugely important for the students as they could be proud of their school. A team designed a logo for the secondary school which we transferred on to signs and a prominent wall. One afternoon we all taught a lesson to classes in both the primary and secondary school. The experience was amazing and what we did couldn’t have been achieved without the hard work of all those who went and the commitment of the teachers.”

Keith Budge, Headmaster of Bedales Schools, said: “This well established initiative has changed the lives of pupils and teachers in Swaziland and continues to be a rewarding experience for our sixth from students. Over the past two years we have expanded our work to incorporate other Swazi schools and we were very pleased to introduce our new Head of Global Awareness, Annabel Smith, to the Swaziland programme, whose remit is to expand the school’s outreach programme across local, national and international communities.”