Good deeds on their minds in memory of a brave friend

Tony McClean. Photo / Supplied

A teacher who died three years ago in a canyoning accident will have his vision of helping poor Nepalese fulfilled by his friends.

Jono Ward and eight other friends of Tony McClean leave for Nepal today to deliver water filters and smoke flues to a village, after discovering McClean's mission in a file on his laptop.

McClean, 29, was an Elim Christian College teacher who died with six of his students in April 2008, in a canyoning accident in Mangatepopo Gorge. He received a posthumous New Zealand Bravery Award and a New Zealand Order of Merit for his actions during the accident.

McClean went to Nepal in 2007, teaching at a school and caring for children at an orphanage. He had planned to go back, and friends and family set up the Tony McClean Nepal Trust to help fulfil his vision.

Ward said McClean had been in Nepal's Lamjung area, which was where the group was going. A group visited there last year and found a problem with indoor air pollution, with high rates of asthma and lung disease, especially in women and children. They also found under-resourced schools and a need for clean drinking water.

The group was taking tools to make fire smoke-hoods to flue the smoke out of people's homes, which caused the illnesses. They would teach locals how to perhaps make a business from the smoke-hoods. They were also taking 70 water filters and school stationery supplies to the village of Garambesi.

To make a donation to the trust, visit www.tnt.org.nz