YOUNGSTERS from a York secondary school are off to South Africa to do community and voluntary work in schools and orphanages.

The group of ten Year Ten students from Archbishop Holgate’s CE School, which is being led by teachers Richard Nihill and Hannah Turvey, visiting the Diocese of Cape Town for two weeks.

Mr Nihill said: “This will be the fourth visit from a group from Archbishop Holgate’s, and the school has built up good relationships with people and groups in Cape Town since 2004.

“The students will get a flavour of South Africa’s geography, but the most important part of the visit is the community service the students will be doing. They’ll be doing some work with Fikelela, a charity for orphaned children with AIDS.

“They will be working in the AIDS orphanage in Khaylelitsha, which is home to children aged six months to eight years, whose parents have died of AIDS, and who are themselves infected with the virus.”

The students took two suitcases filled with a variety of items to be donated to the charities they are going to be working with.

This included such things as baby and toddler clothes, soft toys, writing equipment and other items. In addition, they are also taking with them over £1,000 which they have raised over the last year through bag packing and car boot sales.

This money will pay for the materials for the projects the group are going to be working on and to support the general day to day work of the charities.

Before departing all of the group received a handwritten message from the Bishop of Whitby, the Right Rev Martin Warner, who is chair of the Diocese of York’s Board of Education.

The Diocese of York is twinned with three dioceses in South Africa – Cape Town, False Bay and Saldhana Bay.

The visit to Cape Town is part of ongoing links between the dioceses.

Last year, 12 youth workers from the Diocese of York visited Cape Town to learn from their counterparts there, and Archbishop Holgate’s School welcomed Ciara Mash, a student from Cape Town on an exchange programme.