VOLUNTEERS from three Salisbury charities have helped transform the lives of children in the Philippines.

Serve On, Team Rubicon and Dentaid joined forces to help communities in Mandaue, Cebu, returning from their 14-day mission on Saturday.

Their aim was to help the Umapad Elementary School. The school serves a slum area that has been devastated by earthquakes, large fires and damage from recent typhoon activity.

The three charities helped with vital repairs to the school, supporting teachers with training and equipment and providing much-needed dental care to the children.

Serve On, based at Salisbury Fire Station, worked with first responders and the local community to share their search and rescue expertise.

Firefighter Nick Borritt, who is from Salisbury and works for Dorset Fire and Rescue Service (DWFRS), was part of the Serve On team and was also sharing his firefighting knowledge, including collision extrication techniques, with the Emergency Rescue Unit Foundation (ERUF).

Nick said: "They were an incredible group of people. It was a real please to work alongside them."

One of the youngest members of the team was Serve On Rescue Rookie, Jazz Williams, 16, worked with local children to help teach English.

Speaking about the experience, Jazz said: "It was awesome and there's so much to take away from it."

She says the experience has made her want to do more relief work in the future.

Jo Chambers, who has been with Team Rubicon UK since February, was helping to refurbish classrooms in the school.

She said it was a "humbling experience" and on working alongside fellow charities Serve On and Dentaid added: "We all helped to build something really great."

The dental health of children in the area was also improved with the help of a team of four from Landford-based charity Dentaid, which included dentist Mark Inman and dental nurse Joy Baker from Ivydene Dental Practice in Amesbury.

They set up a treatment centre in a school where they treated more than 450 patients.

Mark said they saw a number of cases where children had infected teeth. He said: "It is good to be able to improve their oral health by taking out infected teeth."

He added: "It was amazing to work with the other two charities because working together it had greater effect."

As well as treating patients the team spoke to school children about dental health and also handed out about 1,000 tooth brushes.

Mark said: "The mission was very successful and we hope very much that it can happen again next year."

Dan Cooke, Team Rubicon UK operations manager, added: "We are delighted with the outcomes.

"We tried to make a big impact and the key to this was collaboration and exceptional team work."