Amersham's Toybox Charity, based in Hill Avenue, works to help poverty-stricken children living on the streets of Guatemala. There a team of Guatemalan staff reach out to desperate youngsters, offering a day centre, a hostel and loving family-style homes. Last month Toybox worker SALLY MCIVER travelled to the central American country to witness this work first-hand. Here she writes about her experiences

I have just returned from an amazing visit to be an eyewitness to a labour of love. A highlight was meeting Luis, who was featured recently on the front of the Bucks Free Press sleeping on his burnt-out mattress in Guatemala City.

But now, thanks to The Toybox Charity supporters, Luis has been able to settle really well into a beautiful new boys' home run by the charity, in countryside away from the dangers of city life.

By contrast with the loving atmosphere of these homes, we spent time at the dump and on the streets.

The dump has to be seen to be believed.

The stench is stifling to say the least but such is the poverty of this city that it does not deter 4,000 men, women and children from making a living and living on the dump.

A constant stream of lorries, carts and youngsters cart trash up and down the precipitous dust track that leads to the dump, clinging to treasures such as wood and salvaged metal.

Families take a break from their labour, sitting together in cardboard boxes to claim some protection from the sun's rays as their toddlers continue to revel in exploring the dangers around them.

The Toybox Charity works with children who come from the dump and the streets and we spent some time at the dump in a typical home, with Segunda, the mother of some of the children we work with.

Segunda lives with her family at the top of the dump. Their home is a tin shack bordered with cardboard with one bare mattress in the corner.

We had met Oscar, one of her sons, at her house. He, along with his nine siblings, was consumed by his addiction to sniffing solvent. Sniffing solvent or drugs is the choice made by so many who live in this dire level of need and desperation.

Next to the dump at the cemetery we met a boy visiting his brother Ruben's grave. Ruben was a child when he died.

His brother told us how Ruben and his friend Daniel had been murdered. Sleeping on the streets outside a shop one night, a policeman had opened fire and that was the end of them.

On Ruben's grave it says: "They called me a street child but nobody asked me why."

What can you say? Why was he on the streets and why did he have to die like that?

There are never going to be any easy answers to a question like this but we had the privilege during our time in Guatemala to spend time with some very special people. They are not put off by the challenge to make a difference to those in greatest need.

We were invited with The Toybox Charity street team to visit the children living in the roads and alleys.

We met Juan Antonio outside the hospital. Standing on a street corner, head down, dirty and dishevelled, I have never seen anyone look so utterly sad.

We found ourselves painting the faces of children and young men who had never had a childhood. They took a lot of pleasure in the attention they received and even Juan Antonio relented and came over to join us. He asked me to paint him like a clown.

I asked him if he was going to come to the Tower, the charitys refuge for street children, and he replied that Norma, our social worker, is going to find a home for him.

He went to check his makeover in the wing mirror of a car and came back nodding approval but asked me to paint a tear.

The black despair of street life is a vivid contrast to the atmosphere of love and hope in the homes and hostel run by the charity.

These are the places where miracles happen for it is here that destitute street children find hope and the will to make something of their lives.

A wonderful smell of cooking greets you as you enter the tower. Fortnightly menu routines adorn the kitchen walls, an impressive list of high protein dishes specially designed for children who have lived for months or years without enough calories to maintain body weight, let alone grow.

Children have to make their own decision to leave the past behind and come off the streets. It requires a huge act of willpower to let go of the cold comforts of abusive relationships and drugs, the familiarity of whatever squalor they have called home for so long and to learn there are human beings who care about them and can help them find hope for the future.

Initially the children get the chance to eat and chat. Then they get to take a shower and change into clean clothes, as well as being able to wash their own. After that they can take part in some kind of learning or training activity designed to suit their interests and their skill level.

These give the children a sense of achievement and a glimpse of what they might become if they persevere in their desire to leave the streets.

This work is all about relationships. These children have to learn to trust the street team first, then the Tower staff. For children who have been ill-treated by adults all their lives, this is not easy to do.

Motivating the children to take a step beyond despair when that is all they have known is a tall order. It is a job which the whole Toybox team in Guatemala share.

The fruits of their labours can be seen most dramatically in the lives of the children who have gone beyond the Tower and taken the next step to the hostel and beyond.

For the children who make it all the way you have the feeling they are now free to do what they want with their life. A far cry from the destitute existence of the streets. That surely is the power of love.

If you wish to help The Toybox Charity's work, call 01494 432591 for further information