A LIFE changing experience — that was the description of a trip to Brazil taken by a group of youngsters led by Whitchurch curate Andrew Williams recently.

The team, from churches in Whitchurch and Tavistock, spent two weeks working with street children from Belo Horizonte, in the favela (slum) night shelters and the farm run by the Christian Happy Child mission based at Havena.

Andrew said: 'The city's official population is three million, but it's actually way in excess of that. This one favela where we were working had an estimated population of 40,000. It's not unlikely there is a favela population of around 500,000 in Belo Horizonte.'

While the Whitchurch contingent were there, ten boys were living at the farm, which can cater for more than 20 youngsters.

Their backgrounds were harrowing, having suffered sexual abuse, the splitting up of families and violence.

At the farm, the first aim is to stabilise and look after the children and either reunite them with their families or find new homes for them.

'It was really important to identify any dream or aspiration they had. They are so beaten down, to have any hope at all is a really rare thing,' said Andrew.

'I was really pleased with the team. They did really well, it was a very challenging trip and it was an incredibly intense period of work. They've all said they would like to go back.'

Every child at the farm received gifts from the team including rucksacks, T-shirts and a pack of pants, which were extremely popular!

'One boy said he wasn't going to wear his pants — or maybe when he got married! ' said Andrew.

Some 'incredibly creative' efforts went into entertaining the boys on the farm.

An entire Roman legion was created out of brown paper, sticky tape and a black marker pen, while Andrew told the tale of Cinderella using his only relevant Brazilian words — glass and flip-flop!

Another popular activity was kite making.

'They love flying kits and the distances they flew them was quite extraordinary. It was quite symbolic for me, the fact they were high above this most appalling poverty. I haven't quite worked it out yet but it was all about reaching up and out.'

In Brazil, one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources and industrial output, 80 percent of the wealth is confined to just 20 percent of the population.

The team were introduced to people living in an area of just one of the slums where the mission is well known — further in and it could have been dangerous.

The favela, built of cheap materials easily washed away during the rainy season, clings precariously to a steep hillside. Open sewers run right outside the doors, where children play in the dirt. Yet they are literally cheek by jowl with stunning and opulent villas.

'These are not lazy or stupid people, they are just born into abysmal poverty and it's very difficult to get out of it,' said Andrew.

'They are not blind to the fact that this is a pretty hideous way of life.'

Andrew said one man he met built his home himself, yet he only had one leg.

'He was hauling bricks up the hill using his bare hands. He was a pretty exceptional human being,' he said.

'I was also really struck with the dignity of these people. There were families doing their level best to eke out an existence on nothing, amongst every sort of vice.'

Andrew's abiding memory was the 'enormous' difference made by a small hard-working group of people, and the incredible degree of poverty suffered by so many.

'One Welsh guy, Danny, has worked in just one of the streets for six or seven years. He wasn't there when we were but you could see where he was working. It was still pretty dreadful, but there was some sense of order and dignity there.

'I was really quite humbled,' said Andrew.