Out in Africa

GHANIAN adventure... Hulme head boy Nilen Vyas

It’s Ghana be a trip of a lifetime for Hulme head boy Nilen, 18
TEENAGER Nilen Vyas is taking part in a solo adventure to forge links with a school in Ghana.

The Hulme Grammar Schools head boy flies out alone to west Africa on Friday for a 12-day trip of a lifetime.

He will be laying the foundations for a visit by fellow Hulme pupils to the Seventh Day Adventist Junior High School in the town of Tafo.

The 18-year-old will also be delivering much-needed supplies such as pens, papers, maths equipment and maps.

Nilen has been at the forefront of setting up the link between the two schools after finding out about the charity Friends of Tafo in a sixth-form assembly.

It was set up by TV and radio producer Humphrey Barclay after he attended a friend’s funeral in Tafo.

Nilen, from Ashton, organised a fundraising netball match to help pay for the trip and also received £700 from the old pupils’ association. He will stay with Mr Barclay, who is a development chief in the town, and said: “Not many people get the opportunity I have been given.

“I like being pushed to my limits. Travelling extremely far away by myself and living somewhere completely out of my comfort zone is something that will always stay with me.”

Nilen has already received videos from his hosts and said: “The pupils seem just the same as students at our school. They like sport, they like the activities — they have a real enthusiasm to learn.”

Hulme has been raising money for the school in Tafo and pupils and staff are planning to visit next year to build a classroom partition wall. It is also fundraising to pay for two Ghanaian pupils to make a return visit.

Nilen will also be carrying out an audit of hospital equipment during his trip ahead of a visit by a Hulme parent, who is a doctor, to carry out voluntary work.

Hulme development director Zenos Christo said: “We are very proud of Nilen. It is a big undertaking and he will be doing a lot of relationship building.”

He explained that the pupils in Ghana did not live in abject poverty but added: “They live a simple, basic lifestyle. Children get up at 5am and walk a mile to collect water, which they do twice before school.

“They often come to school without breakfast and if they have breakfast, it is often leftover scraps.

“By 4pm they go home to work on their parents’ farms. Then they go back to school to do their homework because the electricity is limited and the only place where you are guaranteed to get some light is in the school.

“You look at their classrooms and they are very bare, They are just rubble walls with a blackboard. They do not have the resources we have, they do not have things like pens and paper.