A Moray charity will take more than 100 needy children on their first ever holiday after receiving a £50,000 funding boost.
The Lossiemouth-based Outfit Moray group offers deprived local youngsters exciting adventure breaks away from the struggles of home.
Members say they will be able to take an estimated 120 children on week-long trips to the west coast after receiving the bumper grant.
The free holidays typically include activities like rock climbing, gorge swimming and canoeing.
Outfit Moray chief executive, Ian Rideout, said some of the vulnerable eight-12 year-olds the group takes under its wing have never before sampled activities other youngsters take for granted.
Mr Rideout said: “These are children that would never otherwise get a holiday, some live in abject poverty and are neglected and abused.
“Despite growing up in a coastal area, some of them had never been in the sea before, or had never seen a Highland cow.
“We had one 11-year-old who just weighed 50lbs, it’s shocking that there are young people like that in Moray.
“We use outdoor learning as a way of building confidence and self-esteem in these particularly vulnerable young people.”
Following the £48,803 donation from the Big Lottery Fund’s Young Start programme the charity has now lined up trips for children throughout 2016.
Youngsters are referred to Outfit Moray by schools, support workers and the local authority.
Groups of 16 are taken to the Applecross peninsula in Wester Ross on each occasion, where they receive personal mentoring from volunteers while embarking on the adventurous pursuits.
Mr Rideout added: “As well as taking part in things they’ve never before experienced, we stress with the children the idea of living in an extended group.
“They come with all sorts of baggage, but end up making friends, and realising that not all adults are brutes.
“I notice a huge change in them during the week.”
Each child is also encouraged to create a “memory box” which they can draw upon to remember the trip after they return home.
The Big Lottery Fund’s Scottish chairwoman Maureen McGinn said the project helped shape children for “positive and healthy futures”.