Ireland's cricketers and their management team have donated $1,000 to a Guyanan charity aimed at increasing the life chances of some of the most deprived children in the Caribbean.

The Irish group, while on a visit to the Kids First Fund shelter in Sophia, a suburb of Georgetown, also signed a team shirt that will be auctioned to raise further funds for the shelter.

The shelter, which takes in children from the streets of Georgetown, is the brainchild of Varshnie Jagdeo, the wife of the Guyanan president.

Some of the players, including Jeremy Bray, Trent Johnston Boyd Rankin, Kenny Carroll and Dave Langford-Smith, challenged the children to a game of cricket in the small compound they use as outside space.

The management team were represented by team manager Roy Torrens; assistant coach Matt Dwyer; incoming coach Phil Simmons; and Iain Knox, the team physio.

The shelter raises money to send children away for heart surgery, the cost of which is prohibitively high. The nearest place that offers heart surgery is in Trinidad, at a cost of $20,000 per child.

"This is unaffordable for people who earn $550 a month if they are lucky," said the first lady. "The Heart 2 Heart campaign offers sick children the chance to access a new lease on life free and at the fraction of the cost elsewhere to us."

After their visit to the shelter, the Irish team dropped by the children's ward of the Georgetown public hospital, to distribute sweets and gifts.