A two-year-old Dominican Republic boy was able to have surgery performed on both his ears - at $800 each - thanks to money raised by a Bermuda Institute group earlier this year.

Two dozen students from the school and 17 adults from the Seventh Day Adventist Church made a number of priceless contributions to the residents of La Luz Del Almirante in Santo Domingo this year when they visited the area in April.

They participated in the construction of a new church, purchased furniture for it and provided funding to make it possible for the pastor of the church to purchase a bike for transportation. Previously he walked to his commitments at several churches on weekends.

The walls of the new church were built over an eight-day period this April by a group of skilled workers from Bermuda, lead by construction superintendent James Landy.

And the Bermuda Institute students also conducted Vacation Bible School for the young children there.

"We took all the supplies down with us for Vacation Bible School and they were extremely grateful," said Frigga Simmons, director of development at Bermuda Institute and co-ordinator for fundraising for the project.

The project was overseen by Maranatha, a group which builds churches in various countries.

The Bermuda Institute group of students and volunteers left Bermuda on April 18 and worked on the church from the 20th to 27th before returning on April 30, by which time the walls had been completed.

Just the steel was up when they got there and the roof was to be completed by another group.

"Maranatha raises money through a programme they call "Dollar Church" and they invite people to make a commitment of a dollar a month for the church," explained Mrs. Simmons.

"They need $25,000 to build a church and as a group we sent money for the brick, the mortar and the blocks and when we got there the steel was already up and we had to build the walls.

"James Landy was the construction superintendent and he took with him several skilled masons. He is a member of our Hamilton church and we approached all our churches to see who would volunteer to go because everybody would have to pay their own way."

For the students, aged between 15 and 18, it was an eye-opening experience, said Mrs. Simmons.

"Most of them, when they came back, appreciated more what they have," she explained.

"A lot of things they took for granted and now they see life differently.

"They are more community oriented, wanting to do for people less fortunate than themselves.

"At Bermuda Institute, students are required to do 20 hours of community service every year from grade nine to 12 in order to graduate. That's a requirement for graduation as a senior.

"What we're trying to do is implement a programme for students so that when they come into Grade 9 they select a Third World country and would `adopt' that country for the next three years and build a relationship with either a school or church in that community.

"Then, in their junior year, they will go to that country and do something, either build a church or school or have Vacation Bible School. We want them to get a greater sense of responsibility."

The students worked alongside the other volunteers and were pleased with the progress they made in a short time.

"It is something they want to do again," Mrs. Simmons revealed.

"A lot of them didn't know what to expect and when they got there they had a whole new outlook on life. Typically in Bermuda when young people turn 16 what they look forward to is their bike and that's what they are preoccupied with.

"But once those young people went down there it was something totally different. Some thought they were going on a fun trip, and even though we said to them `this is not a shopping trip, this is going to be hard work', they still didn't recognise it until they got there.

"Maranatha builds churches in Third World countries and our Spanish teacher, whose idea it was to go on a mission trip, wanted to go to a Spanish speaking country.

Maranatha had a spot in the Dominican Republic and that's why we went to the Dominican Republic."

Mrs. Simmons explained that different groups of volunteers arrived in the country at different times to help with the project, hence the steel frame already erected when they got there.

"If we had more time we would have been able to put the roof on," she said.

"Another group is going to come in and build the pews. What we were able to do is purchase furniture for the church."

The local group also visited a school and saw that most of the computers in their computer lab did not work.

"We decided to adopt that school and this year our prefect board is going to adopt a child from that school and donate a quarter a week ($1 a month). Tuition is $20 a month," said Mrs. Simmons.

"The school was about a half hour from where we built the church. We took clothing, shoes and all the materials we took for Vacation Bible School.

"No one who went on the trip returned the same.

"We saw people are satisfied with so little and are still happy, whereas we have everything and complain about what we don't have rather than enjoy what we do have.

"Someone said that happiness is not what you can get but enjoying what you have.

"The kids have a sense that joy is not receiving but giving, and they were all so willing to give."

The effort of the Bermudians did not go unnoticed by either the people of Santo Domingo or Maranatha.

"When we sent our report to Maranatha they said that they have many different groups going down to the Dominican Republic but have never had a group who have done so much for so many different parts of the community of the Dominican Republic," said Mrs. Simmons.

"In planning the project everybody was saying `when are we going to have time to have fun'. But when we got there no one was interested in that. We had the last day for excursions but everybody was too tired to do anything."