21 Years of Adult Expeditions!
On the 21st of July 2024, Vine Trust celebrated the 21st anniversary of the first adult volunteer team’s expedition to Peru. This pioneering group of 30 volunteers, comprising individuals connected to Vine Trust through Bo’ness Old Parish Church, Barclay Church and other networks, embarked on a journey that would lay the foundation for our expedition programmes.
The first week of the trip, from 21st to 28th July 2003, saw the volunteers staying at a hostel in Caraz. During this time, the team broke ground at the new centre for street children at Kusi in the Yungay Valley, laying foundations and beginning to build the much-needed facility.
Neil Graham, Vine Trust Trustee and long-term volunteer, was the leader of this inaugural expedition. Neil remembers his visit with fond memories, noting that, “as there was no accommodation on site, each day the team travelled up and down the mountain from hostel in Caraz on the back of this blue truck. This was always good fun, and a great way to cool down after a hard day’s work on site. The team used their bare feet to make adobe 20kg mud bricks which lay in the sun to dry.”
In the second week, from 28th July to 4th August, the volunteers travelled to Puerto Alegría, a centre for street boys located deep in the jungle, an hour upriver from Iquitos. This visit allowed them to witness first-hand the vital work being done to support vulnerable children in the Loreto region.
Vine Trust expeditions have developed and changed a lot, but this pioneering ‘work party’ as they were called then, provided valuable insight and learning about how to develop impactful opportunities for volunteers to connect with local people and community projects.
Neil goes on to reflect about this visit, that “central to our teams has always been our connection to the children and families we have gone to support. Playing football at Kusi, Caraz (with local kids) and at Puerto Belen are particularly happy memories and was always a great way to connect. Back in those days, the street children would make us friendship bracelets, and we would bring home loads to sell to raise money for the project.”
Next month Neil is leading a similar volunteer team to Moshi in Tanzania. Watch this space for details of next year’s 2025 adult teams to Moshi. Maybe you will be reflecting in 2046 with fond memories of your visit, supporting local partners to bring about change in their community!