St Albans pensioner on a life-changing trip to Dominican Republic

PENSIONER Henry Faulkner is a man on a mission - to help a group of people in the Dominican Republic where he is hoping to travel at the end of September.

Henry, of Holywell Hill, St Albans, who has just qualified for a free TV licence, is going with a group organised by Luton-based Mission Direct.

The purpose of the trip is to help build substantial breeze-block houses for some of the poor Haitian migrants who work for a sugar company there for very little indeed and live in shacks they build themselves out of scrap materials.

Henry, who is a private tutor in maths and physics despite being a pensioner for the past decade, hopes to combine the trip with an an opportunity to visit the two youngsters in the Dominican Republic that he has been sponsoring through Compassion UK. They have been exchanging letters and photos for years without ever meeting.

Not that he expects the trip to be just a holiday - far from it. He said he had met the rest of the Mission Direct group once before and they all came from a wide variety of backgrounds. He expects the shared fellowship to make the trip a real pleasure despite some hard work in the heat and humidity.

Henry’s trip and hotel costs are all paid for but is looking for donations to go direct to the projects Mission Direct is involved in including materials for building, decorating and furnishing the houses or equipping the medical clinic nearby.

To sponsor Henry visit his online fundraising page www.justgiving.com/henry-faulkner