THREE gap year students are heading to Zambia to work in the country's orphanages and schools.Rebecca Laughlin, Harriet Rudge and Wendy Bevan, all 18, will arrive in the south African country on Sunday for a three-month stint in a village close to the capital, Livingstone.

By Danielle Nuttall

THREE gap year students are heading to Zambia to work in the country's orphanages and schools.

Rebecca Laughlin, Harriet Rudge and Wendy Bevan, all 18, will arrive in the south African country on Sunday for a three-month stint in a village close to the capital, Livingstone.

The former St Albans High School students, who are set to take up university places later this year, will become teaching assistants in one of the village's poorest schools.

They will also assist widows and help out in Aids orphanages as well as rebuild and paint a school.

The girls became involved in the project through Real Gap Experience and have each had to raise £3,000 to fund their trip.

All of the youngsters play musical instruments and have held concerts as part of their fundraising efforts, as well as a barn dance and quiz night.

Miss Laughlin, from Witnesham, near Ipswich, has been working as a waitress at the Salt House Harbour Hotel in Ipswich to help fund her trip.

The teenager, who already has place studying music at Oxford Brookes University, said: “I'm getting a bit scared. We've been planning it for so long, it doesn't seem like we're going.

“I'm really excited. I'll be glad to get out of this terrible weather. We're hoping our work will make a difference.”

The girls will be staying in a volunteer house where their food will be provided.