THE country’s average wage is £6 a week and most of its inhabitants will be lucky to live beyond their 43rd birthday. However, volunteers from an impoverished African state are being sent to help the poor of Scotland, writes Marc Horne.

A team of Nigerian aid workers will arrive in Edinburgh this month as part of a Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO) programme to help tackle homelessness, and alcohol and drug abuse in the Scottish capital.

The nine Africans, who will work with Scots with HIV and Aids, have been encouraged to read Irvine Welsh’s Trainspotting to prepare them for them for the experience, which they have been told will be an “eye-opener”.

They will spend three months in some of the city’s most deprived areas, including Craigmillar, Muirhouse and Wester Hailes. Paired with British volunteers, they will work on a variety of projects across the city.

Under the programme, known as Global Xchange, young people from developing countries spend time in deprived inner city areas of Britain. In return, volunteers from the UK spend three months on a reciprocal trip to the home nation of the visiting aid workers. Last month nine volunteers from Indonesia, aged 17-25, arrived in Glasgow to work in its roughest housing schemes, including Maryhill and Milton.

Kezra Shakir, the project supervisor, said the Africans would be shown the poorer areas of the city, which are usually missed by the thousands of visitors who flock to Edinburgh every year.

“Edinburgh is a city of real contrasts and diversity with extremely affluent areas next to parts of the city which are quite poverty-stricken,” she said. “They are right next to each other but in terms of quality of life they are worlds apart. It will be a real eye-opener for the African volunteers.”

Shakir said the Nigerians would be briefed fully on what to expect during their stay in Scotland.

“We are trying to arrange placements to allow the volunteers to work with drugs, alcohol and homelessness charities as they are issues which affect parts of Edinburgh and the people who live there. We also want them to get awareness of HIV and Aids,” she said. “We will give them a list of suggested reading materials and Irvine Welsh’s books will be on it.”

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