A GRANDMA who spent two weeks building new homes for poverty-stricken families in Brazil has described the experience as ‘amazing’.

Sixty-eight-year-old Maggie Randall, of Priestfield Avenue, Colne, was part of a six-strong team of volunteers who built new homes in the slums of Campo Largo, which is near Sao Paulo.

Maggie, who is a member of the Central Gospel Mission, in Goitside, Nelson, also visited a drug rehabilitation centre, orphanage and homeless shelter during her trip.

Speaking after return she said: “Going to Brazil to work in the slums has been an amazing experience.

“Building a house in the mornings and watching it grow day-by-day, meeting the family who will eventually move in and seeing the existence they have right now has been very humbling.

“It teaches you to appreciate the small things in life.”

While in Brazil, Maggie, a former teacher at Roughlee Primary School, said she met a young couple with a baby boy who had been forced to move hundreds of miles away from their family and friends.

According to Maggie the woman was very lonely and the volunteers gave her baby clothes and a paddling pool for her son.

“It was gifts like this that made all the difference on our trip,” she said. “I think we felt rather like ‘secret millionaires’.

“I took a number of little toys for the kids, plus balloons, balls, bubbles, pens and pencils, craft items, ribbons, and hair accessories for the girls. They were just so thrilled to receive little gifts.”

The trip was organised by Mission Direct, a charity which supports locally-led projects among the world’s poorest people.