We have been in Arequipa, about 700 miles south of Lima, for about 5 weeks. Throughout our trip we have been looking for an opportunity to volunteer somewhere and we settled here as we found an incredible orphanage to work in. We have been working about 6 hours a day, looking after the 17 kids and babies, who are between 5 months and 8 years old. The children are there for various reasons; they have no parents, they were abandoned, they were taken from their parents for their own protection. There is also a group of four siblings whose parents just can't afford to look after them. We are having an amazing time with them, playing with them, feeding them, changing nappies and basically giving them contact with adults that they just wouldn't otherwise get. They are all lovely kids, the older ones are all a lot of fun with big hearts, although Steve does collectively call them 'the destroyers' as they do have a tendency to pull apart anything they can get their hands on. It's been a lesson in how much children can be responsible for themselves and be grateful for what they have.

We were only planning on volunteering for four weeks, but the women who run the orphanage have persuaded us to stay another week. Leaving is going to be really hard to do, but it will probably be a whole lot easier if we can go, knowing that they will have enough of the basic supplies that they need to keep the kids healthy and happy and have the really basic things like talcum power for changing the babies, and detergent for the floors, which are in short supply (Steve has been cleaning floors with washing powder this week).

So.... so you can probably see where this is going....

A few of your English pounds go a long long way in Peru. 10 pounds will feed all the children and the Peruvian volunteers that look after them for a day. A tenner will also buy baby formula for a few days. The whole orphanage is funded entirely by donations. They receive no state funding despite the fact that the government can place children there at any time and for any duration.

Three of the babies are just beginning to crawl but as there is not anywhere safe for them to be, so they are kept a lot of the time in their cots. The 'tias' - the women who run the orphanage have said that they would like a pen for them to play safely in. (er, is it called a pen, or have I just made the babies into some of kind of farmyard animal_).

We, and the kids at the orphanage would really appreciate any money that you could send to help buy a 'pen' and to help in the ongoing running costs of the orphange. Unfortunately, the charity doesn't have a justgiving page or any means of donating directly, but if you would like to help a really great cause, and no doubt get some good karma in return, please drop us an email and we{ll give you the account details to transfer money to. Just a fiver would be really appreciated here. We are leaving on Friday 10th Sept so if you can drop us an email before then we'd be really grateful.

Thank you so much in advance for your support, it really does mean a lot.