Pupils' aid for Madagascar school

Pupils in Madagascar walk up to two hours to get to school

Children on the island of Madagascar are to get a new school thanks to the generosity of their counterparts in Wales nearly 6,000 miles away.

Pupils at Ysgol Bryn Elian in Colwyn Bay, Conwy, have helped raise £11,000.

The new school will officially open in central Madagascar in May, and a deputation from Bryn Elian will attend.

A twinning idea developed when Welsh pupils met the country's ambassador while working on a sustainability and global warming project.

"We're looking to build a cyclone-proof school, because that is one of the problems of the country," said head teacher Eithne Hughes, who visited Tokotanitsara last year.

We get computers and great facilities and they get just one paper a week to write on Seoirse Hughes, Bryn Elian pupil

"We're also looking to put on a kitchen, so that the children actually have some food when they get there."

Other facilities will include a well and toilet facilities, she added.

"There's no electricity, no water. They've walked two hours to get there, and they arrive to an empty classroom," she said

Also on the trip to see the island was Mrs Hughes' son Seoirse, a year seven pupil at Bryn Elian.

"The buildings were awful," he said.

Pencil

"They had corrugated iron roofs and in the summer that would have got so hot.

"I was feeling the heat and it was winter there," he said.

Seoirse said the pupils had very little facilities.

"We get all the stuff here, we get computers and great facilities and they get just one paper a week to write on.

"If they lose a pencil they don't get another one as the teacher can't afford to give them one," he added.

Two pupils from the school have been invited to attend the official opening of the school in Madagascar.

"They have so little, it gives you a sense you are really helping," said James Scott.

"It'll create an emotional bond," added William Kaye.