The DR is a beautiful country with wonderful sandy beaches, vegetation, and friendly people. During your two-week trip, you will have the unique opportunity to see the real Dominican Republic – not just the view that the tourists see of the beaches and palm trees. Sadly, life for many people involves serious poverty and hardship.

During your trip, you get the opportunity to help improve the lives of many people here. It is a varied and exciting program, with something for everyone.

18th July - 1st August 2026

8th - 22nd August 2026

We’re delighted to announce that our 2025 project will be in partnership with The Samaritan Foundation, an organisation that has faithfully served the poor in the Dominican Republic for over 30 years. Their mission is simple yet powerful: to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ in practical ways that bring lasting transformation to individuals and families.

While we can’t change every life, we can make a lasting difference in the lives of many. With your support, we’ll be contributing to a vision that continues to impact communities for generations to come.

The Samaritan Foundation has already developed 16 communities, providing over 2,000 families with block-built homes—free of charge. Alongside this, they’ve built 12 churches, 8 schools, 5 medical clinics, 3 vocational training centres, and run multiple outreach and development initiatives.

Grace Village – A New Beginning

In 2025, our team will be working in Grace Village, a brand-new development in Villa Montellano, Puerto Plata, near Villa Ascencion. This will be the Foundation’s 17th housing project, eventually providing homes for 250 families. Construction is already underway, and in 2025, 50 new homes are set to be built.

We are excited to be sponsoring one home. Once complete, this house will be gifted to a local family—offering them a safe, permanent place to call home.

To make this possible, our team fundraising target is £6,000. This will go directly toward the cost of the house, and every pound raised will help us bless a family with the gift of security, dignity, and hope for the future.

More Than a Tourist Destination

Many are unaware of the level of poverty that exists in the Dominican Republic, often masked by its vibrant tourist image. But just beyond the resorts lie communities where families live in fragile tin shacks, often sleeping on bare ground or on worn-out mattresses.

Make a difference in 2025! Join us in the Dominican Republic and be a part of something truly special.

Each afternoon we will visit and support some of our other partners – many of which have been main projects in previous years. This may include a children’s outreach program and youth discipleship program, and local Dominican run-ministries, like Christ Transforms Drug & Alcohol Rehab, where we will have opportunities to share some stories of hope and testimonies with the men, or the Nazareth House home for disabled children run by the amazing Sister Mercedes. There will also be opportunities to visit the English-speaking church in Sosua. There will be lots of different activities, involving lots of different people – all we ask of you is to come and be willing to give things a go.

The DR has beautiful beaches, vegetation and people and we will make sure you get to see it all. During your trip, you will get some time to visit the beach to digest and reflect or take a relaxing dip in the hotel swimming pool after a hot day of hard work.

To end your two weeks of hard work, we will go to visit Rudy’s ecological garden, take a ride down the river on his boat, swim in the warm river where it meets the ocean, take in some AMAZING views, and then eat some incredible food in Rudy’s treehouse restaurant.

There are several airports in the DR, therefore you may land at an airport which requires a long drive to the hotel. Please be aware that we work hard to find the best value flights that will accommodate all your team at the time of booking, and this may mean that your flight is not direct from the UK.

We hire a bus to drive our teams around. It is comfortable and well maintained. Some of the roads we will drive down are in bad condition, so prepare for a few bumps along the way.

The DR is in the tropics and is hot all year round. The actual temperature is usually around 33- 34 degrees C, but the humidity gets very high during July and August when the ‘real feel’ temperature can get as high as 49 degrees C. If you struggle with heat, the DR may not be the best place for you during July and August, why not consider joining us on one of our other country teams instead.

Officially the DR does have a rainy season, but really it is a myth; when it rains it really rains but this is normally short-lasting. Hurricane season is from June-November. Fortunately, the north side of the island doesn’t get the full impact of hurricanes, but we may get some rain during a time that one is passing. 

You will be staying in a small, all-inclusive hotel called Sosua by The Sea which is in the center of Sosua. The hotel is comfortable, and all rooms are en-suite and have air conditioning. There is hot water and a backup generator for when the power goes out. There is a pool and easy access to the beach. Meals and drinks are included. We start every day with devotions followed by breakfast overlooking the beautiful blue ocean.

You need to bring a US adapter (110v). Wi-Fi is available in most areas at a cost specified by the hotel.

At Sosua by The Sea, all your meals are included. Meals can be buffet style or a set menu served at the table. On a weekend we will sometimes have a BBQ specially prepared by the hotel chef. Most drinks are included. 

There may be a couple of opportunities for you to visit local cafes, so bring some spending money if you think you might like to treat yourself to a snack. 

If you have any special dietary requirements or food allergies/intolerances, please let us know in advance. We will do all we can to accommodate these. If you are unable to eat gluten, please bring some bread or crackers with you as they are not available in the DR.

The local currency is the Dominican Peso (DOP) which is approximately £1.00 = 60 pesos.

The US dollar is widely accepted too, although not in the small villages. You can change money from sterling to pesos in the DR, so you don’t need to worry about doing it beforehand – although you can if you wish.

You will not need to spend money on food and transport (except for the occasional drink, snack, or ice cream) as this is all included in the suggested trip contribution. However, you may want to bring money for souvenirs. There is also an opportunity at the end of the trip to make cash donations to any of the projects that we have visited if you wish, but there is no pressure to do this. So, if you are given extra donation money to bring, please do.

The official language in the DR is Spanish or Dominican-Spanish. The Haitian people speak Creole, which is based on French, so if you speak French you may be able to communicate in the Haitian villages.

We will always have translators with us to enable and help you to communicate with the local people, so don’t panic. Learning some basics before you come might be fun though.

Unfortunately, you won’t have a generous baggage allowance which will limit the amount of aid that you can bring with you. Therefore, the DR ‘Wish List’ will only contain the most useful things you can bring and this will be addressed when you attend your orientation meetings.

When you join a Mission Direct team you will meet people from a range of backgrounds. It is important that you come ready to be a team player. We work hard together and generally have a lot of fun doing so. Some of these ‘strangers’ may well become lifelong friends afterwards. Trips where people try to opt out and ‘do their own thing’ tend to be far less successful and enjoyable for everybody on the team; please bear this in mind. 

Mission Direct is a Christian organization and the Partner organizations that we work with are often, though not always, led by Christians. We are all on a life journey and are delighted to welcome people of any or no faith to join us. Typically we have short morning and evening reflections and on the trip you will visit a local church. We would like you to attend these aspects of the trip as part of the ‘teamwork’ ethos though there is no pressure for you to join in with the services, sing or pray if you don’t want to. The trips provide an eye-opening cross-cultural experience and are great fun. 

You don’t have to be particularly strong, able, young, old or skilled in building or DIY to join a Mission Direct trip. We will put you to suitable work pretty much whoever you are. Children under 18 are welcome as long as they are accompanied by at least one parent or adult “en loco parentis”. The youngest child to join us was 7 years old, the oldest person was 88. If you are deemed fit to join the team by your doctor, we will be glad to have you join us.

Sadly, there are accessibility issues for Mission Direct trips due to the nature of the country and, of course, the building sites. If you have a particular disability, please get in touch and we can discuss what is possible on this, or another Mission Direct trip.

Parts of the trip may be substantially different to your last visit. Prepare to do different things and meet new people, though you will probably also see some familiar faces too. We ask that you  allow those on their first trip to enjoy and experience each day as it unfolds, so avoid those ‘spoilers’ please!  

07.00 Morning devotions

07:15 Breakfast

08.00 Depart for building site

12:30 Lunch on site (packed lunches provided by the hotel)

13:15        Depart for partner visit e.g. school, villages in area, Severet Gardens, rehab Centre

14:00 Arrive at afternoon project

17:00 Arrive back at hotel

18:30 Debrief

19:00 Dinner at hotel

To join us, you’ll be asked to cover the cost of your trip, which is calculated using the previous year’s volunteer numbers and the total cost of the campaign. We build in an assumption of being able to claim Gift Aid on 60% of all contributions. We rely on this to cover any cost variations and to keep the charity running so it is important that you Gift Aid your contribution if you can. 

Once your application has been accepted you will have the opportunity to set up a payment plan for your contribution. 

We ask you to fundraise for more than just the trip contribution to support building costs and help pay for materials and local labour. 100% of any extra funding, excluding Gift Aid, goes straight to the project.

Mission Direct is registered under the ATOL scheme licence number 10768
All the flight-inclusive mission trips on this website are financially protected by the ATOL scheme. When you pay you will be supplied with an ATOL Certificate. Please ask for it and check to ensure that everything you booked (flights, hotels, and other services) is listed on it. Please see our booking conditions for further information or for more information about financial protection and the ATOL Certificate go to: www.caa.co.uk

Your Financial Protection.

When you buy an ATOL protected flight inclusive mission trip package from us you will receive an ATOL Certificate. This lists what is financially protected, where you can get information on what this means for you and who to contact if things go wrong.We, or the suppliers identified on your ATOL Certificate, will provide you with the services listed on the ATOL Certificate (or a suitable alternative). In some cases, where neither we nor the supplier are able to do so for reasons of insolvency, an alternative ATOL holder may provide you with the services you have bought or a suitable alternative (at no extra cost to you). You agree to accept that in those circumstances the alternative ATOL holder will perform those obligations and you agree to pay any money outstanding to be paid by you under your contract to that alternative ATOL holder. However, you also agree that in some cases it will not be possible to appoint an alternative ATOL holder, in which case you will be entitled to make a claim under the ATOL scheme (or your credit card issuer where applicable).If we, or the suppliers identified on your ATOL certificate, are unable to provide the services listed (or a suitable alternative, through an alternative ATOL holder or otherwise) for reasons of insolvency, the Trustees of the Air Travel Trust may make a payment to (or confer a benefit on) you under the ATOL scheme. You agree that in return for such a payment or benefit you assign absolutely to those Trustees any claims which you have or may have arising out of or relating to the non-provision of the services, including any claim against us, the travel agent (or your credit card issuer where applicable). You also agree that any such claims may be re-assigned to another body, if that other body has paid sums you have claimed under the ATOL scheme