THE moment they spot Jean Donnachie and Noreen Real the children run to them for a hug. "Aunty Jean, Aunty Noreen," they shriek happily.

THE moment they spot Jean Donnachie and Noreen Real the children run to them for a hug. "Aunty Jean, Aunty Noreen," they shriek happily.

Salman, 10, Adnan, 8, and Faizan, 5, may not be related by blood but in this foreign land, which is their new home, these two grans - Jean is 67 and Noreen is 59 - are the closest they have to family apart from their own parents.

The inspirational Scotstounhill women were crowned Evening Times Scotswomen of the Year 2008 at a heart-warming awards ceremony in Glasgow City Chambers on Wednesday.

They received the accolade - alongside the inaugural award of International Scotswoman of the Year to Mary Miller - for their campaign to stop Home Office dawn raids on asylum seekers living in their GHA block.

And their remarkable story will soon be known to a wider audience - director Ken Loach plans to make a film of how the women used people power against the might of the state and won.

Thanks to their efforts - and those of people like them - the Scottish Government has condemned the Home Office raids on failed asylum seekers, which are now used only very rarely.

"Jean and Noreen are my best friends," beams the boys' mum, Safia Sultana, who fled here from Pakistan with her children five years ago.

"I really enjoy being with them. They listen to us and they care about us and the kids. They don't look to our colour.

"They are so kind and caring. And my kids, they love them." Her smile widened.

"Faizan, who was born here, can't live without them. He is always hugging them and when he sees them, he'll say Aunty Jean, look I have a new shirt' or Aunty Noreen, my mum bought me this'."

Safia, whose English is excellent and who speaks six other languages, has to raise her voice to be heard above the conversation at Jean's pensioners' lunch club.

Along with Jean and Noreen, she is on the management committee of the Kingsway Court health and wellbeing centre at Block 50.

This happy, relaxed woman is very different from the distraught newcomer she was in the early days.

Finding herself in a tiny flat in the high rise complex in Scotstounhill, Safia, now 38, felt isolated.

It was a world away from her comfortable life at home in Islamabad as the daughter of a history professor and wife of a computer expert.

"When we came here, we were scared," she confesses.

"You want to speak to someone. You want to tell them what happened to you and if you don't know anyone, it's very hard."

She was bewildered by her new life. "I used to stay at home and cry and my kids used to cry with me."

But that changed when they met Jean and Noreen and started attending the community centre.

"My kids started playing football and joining the clubs. We all got used to living here."

Safia herself was able to open up to her new friends and tell them why she had been forced to flee.

Her husband, who comes from a tribal area, was studying in Islamabad when they met. He had wanted to escape from the traditions of violence in his culture.

"He married me without permission from his family," explains Safia. "When they found out, they attacked our house while I was eight months pregnant with our third child. I lost my baby."

She feared her kids would be taken away and put in a paramilitary training camp.

Safia fled and now has refugee status, which means she can stay in Scotland and she is happy, despite a life far removed from the one she enjoyed at home.

"My father's house had 10 bedrooms and five bathrooms," she says. "Here, we just have two small rooms and one toilet. It's hard, but to save our lives, it is okay.

"And it's all because of Jean and Noreen because they have tried so hard for us.

"We were here when the Home Office started deporting people and they used to come at dawn and break down people's doors and take them away in handcuffs."

Another refugee, Mohamed, is equally grateful to Jean and Noreen. "They are like a mum to everyone," he says.

Mohamed, 39, an Algerian businessman and a political refugee, fled to the UK with his wife. He is reluctant to speak about what he went through.

"I don't like to bring these things back. But it was very cold and very dark and there was electric shock treatment and water tortures and I was beaten up."

The couple's son and daughter were born here and they remember the time of the dawn raids.

"It was very stressful. Even if you knew they were not coming for you, you would still worry about your neighbours. We all know each other and when someone is in danger, we feel we are a family. We watched people crying as they were taken away. It made us very sad and you said sooner or later, it will be me'."

At first, he says, he couldn't believe Jean and Noreen were prepared to risk being on the wrong side of the law to save the asylum seekers.

He couldn't believe they simply wanted to help their neighbours and weren't looking for anything in return.

Mohamed says: "To be honest, without them, none of this would have happened.

"Not only are they giving us a welcome, but they don't expect anything.

"They cry when one of us has problems. They get very upset. They can't sleep.

"In my heart, I have a good image of a rare community and a rare people. It has been great to know them and to work with them. I could sacrifice my life for them."

But it's not just the newcomers who are thankful for Jean and Noreen.

Gran Ina Smith, 80, a member of the lunch club, also praises the work they have done for the local pensioners.

"They are the nicest people. Everybody comes in to tell them their troubles and they always want to help if you've any worries or anxieties .

"We're like one big happy family. All for one and one for all."