Two Highland women have spoken about the lessons they both learned from and passed on to a group of young African mothers during a recent trip to Zambia.
Anne MacAskill, from Skye, and Mabel Wallace, from Fort William, spent a week visiting the Journeying Together project, which supports 100 girls and their children.
The pair instructed the youngsters in a variety of skills such as biscuit-baking, sewing and card-making and hope the initiative will help them produce goods they can sell to support themselves in the future.
The women are members of the Church of Scotland Guild, which has raised £45,000 to boost the scheme run by the United Church of Zambia in Kanyama – a poverty-stricken township near the country’s capital, Lusaka.
Mrs MacAskill, 71, whose son Danny is a renowned stunt cyclist with a massive global following on social media, is involved with Bracadale and Duirinish Parish Church.
She said: “It was wonderful to see what was happening in Zambia firsthand. We were given a great welcome by the women, who walked from 60-90 minutes away to get to the project where they are given training on nutrition, parenting and sex education.
“They are very resourceful and we worked alongside them, baking biscuits, making scrunchies and several other things, which they could then hopefully sell at markets.
“I was part of a group of 10 from Scotland and we also taught them first aid and listened to their problems and their ambitions.
“It was an inspiring experience and the singing was wonderful, with some of the girls having the Gaelic song ‘Brochan Lom’ added to their repertoire.”
The Scottish-African partnership works to build confidence among the girls, tackle social injustice, and the participants are offered the opportunity to return to school to finish their education or be provided with vocational training.
Mrs Wallace, 66, session clerk of Duncansburgh MacIntosh Parish Church, described the trip as “an emotional rollercoaster – there were tears, sickness, laughter and joy.”
She added: “It was great to meet the young mothers who are benefiting from this empowering project, which is making such a positive difference in their lives.”
