WALKING along the streets of a certain, poverty-stricken village in the suburbs of sprawling Guatemala city are dozens of people wearing tops emblazoned with the word "Bermuda".

And it is not because the island has been blessed with a sudden influx of visitors from Central America in recent months. Indeed, luxurious foreign holidays are beyond the wildest dreams of these struggling people.

No, the reason for the concentration of Bermuda shirts in an obscure place so far from the island is the generosity of Bermuda residents and the hard work of a local charity.

Last Christmas Eve, the Bermuda-based Guatemala Relief Fund delivered a container-load of goodies, mainly clothes, but also bread, candy and toys, to brighten up the lives of people who usually have little to smile about.

The clothes had been donated by local residents last November. And the money to ship the container to Guatemala and transport the clothes to needy people came from a group of local companies, including XL Capital, Chubb Atlantic, Butterfield & Vallis and HWP.

The charity is run by Norma Thomson, who has lived in Bermuda for 14 years, but was born in Guatemala and lived there until she was eight years old before she moved to California. She explained why she had started sending containers to the country of her birth seven years ago.

"One day someone told me that hospitals in Guatemala needed newspapers and I asked why," said Mrs. Thomson, who works at the Bank of Bermuda. "She told me that it was because they had no clothes for new-born babies and so they wrapped them in newspapers.

"I thought about how much we have here and how we have a surplus of really good quality stuff. I thought it would be good to get some of it down to Guatemala, a place where people have nothing. I wanted to help my country."

Since 1995, the Guatemala Relief Fund has sent 13 container-loads of clothes to Central America. On each occasion, Mrs Thomson's parents, Jose and Blanca Ortiz, collect the goods from the container and drive them to the homes of the desperately poor.

"They are in their 70s and it's what they live for," said Mrs. Thomson. "They drive into villages no one would ever think of going and open up the car with all the clothes inside. These are places where they could get mugged. But the people look at my mother like she's an angel. It was just an amazing experience to see them. Nothing goes to waste there. People even wanted the cardboard from the boxes we used to deliver the stuff in to use as bedding. It made me think of how we are blessed in Bermuda and how little we realise it." Mrs. Thomson said it was never a problem collecting enough clothes from locals to fill a container. "What I do is put a small ad in the paper for a couple of days.

"Last time, the container was full after half a day. The generosity of this island is amazing. I want people to see these pictures so they know that the help they are giving is getting there."