This holiday season, hope begins with a "Z."

Students throughout the Bethel Park School District are working with nearby Christ United Methodist Church to supply funds and materials to schoolchildren in the Home of Hope orphanage in Zimbabwe.

Each homeroom in kindergarten through grade 8 is sponsoring a child in the Nyadire mission. Fifty dollars will pay for a year's education, plus a backpack filled with school supplies.

At the high school level, other service projects are in the works to raise funds.

"Each room is doing something special," said Fred Pearson, principal at Washington Elementary. "We don't just want the kids to bring in money; we want it to be something they've earned."

One of the projects, he said, involved having each kid make a large, paper "Z." As they finished chores at home for a quarter, the quarters were taped to the paper.

"We have some really generous families here. It's nice to see our kids get excited about other folks around the other side of the world," Mr. Pearson said.

"But to be able to make that personal connection with the [African] kids touched home, too."

The Washington pupils received a photo and information about "their" homeroom child, and in turn sent cards and letters.

Assistant Superintendent Nancy Rose said the district's initial contact with the church came through a school director aware of the mission to Zimbabwe.

"When we heard the stories and saw pictures of some of the kids, we were deeply touched," she said.

Due to the ravages of HIV infection in Zimbabwe, she said, almost a third of the country's children are orphaned, and life expectancy is fewer than 35 years.

The government has responded with three housing options: Children live in extended families with relatives; children live in households where the head of the family might be 12 or 14 years old, and some live in more traditional orphanage buildings.

"The greatest need, we found, was for the education of the children," Mrs. Rose said.

Eighteen members from the church went to Zimbabwe last year, where projects included the conversion of an unused building into a dormitory for student nurses.

"We also had a children's team: They did a two-week Bible school program for the kids," said Sue Bower, a registered nurse who worked on the medical team.

"These kids were amazing. They did a musical; they learned 15 or 20 songs, made costumes ... the whole village turned out for it at the end of the week."

Drew Harvey, who led the church team through seven components of their mission, was unavailable for comment: He's been in Zambia, working with Habitat for Humanity.

Although there is a Nyadire mission school, the Bethel Park district sponsorship will go toward educating the children in the public schools.

In addition to the classroom fund-raising projects, Bethel Park is sending used books and equipment, including some computers, to Zimbabwe.

At Washington School, 20 backpacks and a few cartons of school supplies are housed along a back wall.

Each of the Timberland backpacks is stuffed with notebooks, pencils, pens, rulers and the like.

Also ready to be shipped is a box of more than a dozen pairs of new shoes, courtesy of Timberland. One of the Washington teachers is married to an employee of the company.

Mrs. Rose said that engaging pupils in the project through work and education -- teachers have been talking to their kids about Africa and its challenges -- is a valuable life experience.

"As a society, one of the things we do is fall into a trap where we ask [our pupils] to do something kind and gracious, then we give them a doughnut party.

"We don't let them feel good for the sake of doing something good."