D’Arcy Nicolle with one of the youngsters who will benefit from the trip that his employers, Rihoy & Son, helped fund. (0630893)

SIX local volunteers have helped to transform lives in Nicaragua. They spent two weeks in the Central American country working with the Guernsey arm of the Peace and Hope Trust.

Jamie Hooper, Michelle Stanford, Kevin Stevens, Ann Stevens, Anne-Marie Brehaut and D’Arcy Nicolle were the islanders who joined volunteers from the UK.

For Mr Nicolle, last month’s trip was something of a homecoming. He spent a year there from 2006. The team was involved in building a bakery in Bluefields, a poor district of the country, where the 90% of people who are unemployed live off a rubbish tip.

In the fortnight they were there, the building went from scratch to floor level and will now be completed by Nicaraguans.