But when city hotelier Fiona Newton attended a presentation looking for volunteers to help abandoned street children in Peru, she did not hesitate to sign up, despite her fear of jungle creatures, including snakes.

Ms Newton was among 35 volunteers, mainly from Inverness, who went on the trip organised by the Vine Trust, an international inter-dominational Christian charity whose vision is to see communities transformed.

She had initially heard about the trust's work from her joiner, Nigel Jack, whom she had helped to sponsor on a similar trip in 2005.

On his return, she attended a film show and presentation by the trust which was seeking volunteers for another project.

"They said 'all we are asking for is a fortnight of your life,' — and that sold it to me," she recalled.

Ms Newton, who previously trained as a registered sick children's nurse at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow, joined a group of volunteers drawn mainly from members of Hilton Parish Church of Scotland and which included a broad range of people of all ages.

Initially they flew to Lima, the capital of Peru. Following an overnight stay in a hotel, then flew to the city Iquitos, the gateway to the Peruvian Amazon. "It can only be reached by air or boat," Ms Newton explained. "There are no roads to Iquitos."

From here, they travelled by boat along a tributary of the Amazon to where they would stay for the first week of the trip — a home for abandoned boys in Puerto Alegria.

"About 26 boys of all ages live there," she explained. "They all used to live on the streets where they would sleep during the day and come out at night."

Despite some heartbreaking stories, she said there was an overwhelming sense of cheerfulness at the home. "The boys were so happy," she reflected.

During their stay at the Puerto Alegria home, the volunteers, who included plumbers, electricians and carpenters, helped to dig the foundations for a workshop and also improve existing buildings. Ms Newton recalled her sense of achievement at digging a one metre deep hole for the foundations.

"There was also a lot of interaction with the children," she said. "We struck up a rapport with them. We ate with the boys and played games at night with them which were just hilarious and also had sing-songs."

Although the living conditions were basic with bunk beds, or mattresses on the floor, Ms Newton was unconcerned about roughing it for a couple of weeks although she admitted she was relieved not to see a snake during her time her time in the jungle.

"The only thing I missed in two weeks was hot water," she said. Although they drank bottled water, they washed with water drawn from the river which is integral to life in Puerto Alegria.

"The people wash themselves in the river, they wash their clothes in the river," she said. "Also, everything has to be taken to the home by boat. It is the only means of getting food and building materials there."

At the start of the second week, the group embarked on a journey to Kusi, high in the Andes, for the next phase of the Peruvian trip.

After a flight and a 12-hour bus journey, they finally reached another home for about 100 abandoned boys. Set against the spectacular backdrop of Mount Huascaran, Ms Newton found it was contrast to the jungle setting.

She and the rest of the group were also relieved she had packed at least one home comfort — a hot water bottle! "We used to pass it around at night because we so frozen!"

A much newer project than the one at Puerto Alegria, construction work is still on-going. During their stay here, the volunteers barrowed mud and made mud bricks.

Ms Newton felt the boys here were traumatised and had the appearance of being more malnourished than at the previous home because they had not lived there for as long. Before their return home to Scotland, the group visited a third home in Lima.

The scale of the problem facing street children was brought home to Ms Newton during a poignant moment while having a meal with the boys. "When they are on the streets, they steal to eat," she explained. "They do it just to survive on the street. When we were sitting at the table having a meal, one wee boy put five bread rolls under his jumper — he was taking them to give to his friends."

Fiona Newton, owner of the Heathmount Hotel. Iona Spence

She also recalled visiting one of the poorest areas of Iquitos.

"When we got off the bus, I think it brought a lump to everyone's throat and a tear to their eye to think that people could live in such poverty and squalor and filth."

Before she went to Peru, friends, family and customers and staff at the Heathmount helped her to raise £10,000 — enough to fund a home for one year. Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club also donated a team football strip, which the boys at Puerto Alegria now wear for matches, while her nephew donated a saxophone and clarinet.

Although she does not regard her trip as a life-changing experience, she says it was an eye-opener and has made her think more about the way she lives in Inverness.

"It was like stepping back in time," she said. "When we went on the river boat, for example, people were going up and down the river in canoes hollowed out of trees and carrying bananas and straw.

"It was just like the scenes in Biblical times when you see people washing the river."

Certainly, she would recommend the experience to anyone and is hoping to undertake a trip with the Vine Trust in the future.

The trust started as a local community res-ponse to the famine in Ethiopia and Sudan in 1985 but has grown since then. It aims to bring opportunity, health and hope to disadvantaged communities and marginalized people with a particular concern for vulnerable children.

In the past few years, more than 80 people drawn from members of Hilton Parish Church and their network of family and friends have visited the trust's projects in Peru thanks to the initial involvement of its minister, Rev Duncan Macpherson.

"Essentially, I got involved in 2003 when I went to Peru to have a look at what they were doing," he explained.

"When I came back to Hilton Church there was a big response. Within a year, we had a team of more than 30 people to do work on the Street Children's Project."

Since then, there have been subsequent trips while Rev Macpherson has visited Peru three times.

"It is hugely rewa-rding to think that your efforts have made a real difference to a child who but for the Vine Trust would be living on the streets," he reflected.

"The efforts the volunteers put into fund-raising or building a home really do make a difference between being on the streets and having a home with an opportunity and a life ahead of them.

"That in itself is quite a powerful experience as it is just to the hear the stories of the children and what they have experienced in their lives — and to realise we very often have privileged lives."

Apart from the trips, the church also raises funds to support the trust's work. A carol singing event in the Eastgate Centre at Christmas, for example, raised about £800.

Nigel Jack — the joiner from whom Ms Newton heard about the trust — said his visit to Peru would stay with him for the rest of his life.

"It certainly puts everything into perspective," he commented.

v.sweeney@inverness-courier.co.uk

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