A young Bermudian who spent six weeks in an orphanage in South America has launched a website to raise money for the children.

Stephen Bath, 23, returned to the Island recently after seeing how 54 orphan children lived in a border town near Mexico and Guatemala. He said the experience changed his life.

He met dozens of children who were exposed to unimaginable hardships, including physical and sexual abuse. The children, aged between three and 19, were trying to rise above their hardships and had found a loving home and new educational opportunities at the Albergue Mission orphanage.

The website www.imageofhope.com is selling photos of the children for $20 each, with all the money going directly to the home, said Mr. Bath.

"The goal is to raise enough money to pay for a couple of tutors to come in for 20 to 40 hours a week to give the kids the educational assistance they really need," he said.

"Public schools in Mexico run for about three hours a day and a high school diploma there is not really recognised anywhere outside Mexico. So any kind of outside assistance we can get is really beneficial."

The small border town in Mexico where the orphanage is based is a tough place for any child to grow up. It's the main route for the gun, drugs and human trafficking between Mexico and Guatemala, Mr. Bath said.

"Living conditions there are abysmal. Being the largest town on the border it is the headquarters for two of the major gangs in Mexico, so there are killings there everyday," he added.

The children he met had heartbreaking stories; the majority of them had at least one parent in jail.

"There was one kid who until he was ten his father used to hang him upside down and beat him with an iron pole. He's 19 now. He's been living in the orphanage for ten years.

"One set of children watched their mother get doused in gasoline and burned alive.

"Another girl moved to Guatemala with her mother. Her mother died from cancer and when she moved back home she found her entire family had been murdered by the Maras, one of the big gangs. So each kid has a different story," he said.

"There are kids that have been sold into sexual slavery. There were kids that will not even talk about what they have been through and it absolutely breaks your heart."

Still, he admits he built strong bonds with a few of the children. It was difficult some days, he said: "Some of the kids have very serious emotional difficulties, but at the end of the day you kind of need to sit down and consider everything they have been through."

Mr Bath continued: "I feel like the experience benefited me as a person more than I was able to help them. It gives me so much more of an appreciation for everything that I have."

He commended the Australian couple that runs the orphanage. Alan and Pam Skuse raised the funds to build a property in the area and have helped more than 250 children in need.

"They confirmed the fact that some people can be so genuinely good it gives you faith that everything is going to be fine," Mr. Bath said.

• To donate to Mr. Bath's cause go to www.imageofhope.com. To find out more about the orphanage visit www.lovelifehope.com.