Claire Hodgson didn't know what to do for her summer holiday this year.

Then she happened to take another look at a leaflet that she had put into her recycling box.

"It was about going to the Dominican Republic with a charity, and I thought that it sounded interesting," she recalls.

So Claire paid £1,395 and began making arrangements for a holiday which turned out to be very different from the breaks usually enjoyed by visitors to the Caribbean island, renowned for its sandy beaches.

Instead of sunbathing, she spent much of her time helping to build new homes for people who had been living in a shanty town.

"We were working with people in a village called Los Algodones, near Puerto Plata, and building them new concrete homes to replace the slum housing they'd been living in," says Claire, 26, who works as a civil servant in Bristol.

She was involved in helping to build a new home for a woman called Carolina, who has been widowed and was trying to raise four sons on her own in a shack which regularly flooded.

"Her husband was a taxi driver who died after being stabbed by a customer. He was in hospital for some time after the attack, but they couldn't afford to continue paying for treatment," says Claire, who lives in Fishponds.

"Carolina had already sold all the furniture that she could, so she had nothing more to sell, and eventually her husband died.

"It was wonderful to be able to really make a difference, and to actually move a family out of a slum into a new home. The slum home was then destroyed so no one else could move in, as the vision is for everyone to be living in proper homes."

In addition to helping with the project to build new homes, Claire also visited various villages to assist with feeding programmes for children.

She said: "There is a school which has been built in the area, but many children have to travel quite a distance to get there. They were arriving starving as their parents hadn't been able to feed them.

"We'd arrive in the truck and the children would swarm around it. They'd be all over us for attention and affection, as in the villages children are often left to wander around in the community from a very young age while their parents work in the sugar fields."

In addition to visiting schools during her two-week visit in July, Claire also went to the local hospital. She was particularly shocked by the suffering she witnessed there.

"It was a really depressing environment. If you can't afford to pay for treatment then you don't get treated. It's not the fault of the individual staff, it's the system. There isn't anything like our National Health Service.

"There were people with broken legs that they couldn't get fixed because they couldn't pay. I saw only one nurse to take care of about 200 patients in the hospital, and there appeared to be little medication available.

"It's something that most people who go to the Dominican Republic on holiday are unaware of, as most resorts are quite closed in and tourists are not encouraged to go outside."

Claire, who attends Fishponds Baptist Church, is planning another two-week trip to the Dominican Republic with Mission Direct in October. She is also hoping to go again next year for a longer time to set up a children's feeding programme.

"Mission Direct is a Christian charity, but you don't have to be a Christian to work with them, and unlike some other aid organisations you don't need to have any special skills," she says. "As before, I'll pay for myself to go out, but I'll also be doing some fundraising so I can bring with me medicines such as Paracetamol, and hygiene packs with toothpaste and soap.

"What I'd really like to do next year would be to go out for months rather than weeks, so I could try to create a sustainable feeding programme for children. I'd like to set up kitchens in schools which local people could run themselves."

Claire is determined to help in the Dominican Republic, despite the fact she almost went blind when working abroad when she was 18.

"I went to Burkina Faso in West Africa to teach, and while I was there I had a reaction to anti-malaria tablets that I'd been taking," she says. "The optic nerves in my eyes were damaged, and I've now got tunnel vision and am registered partially-sighted."

Nevertheless, Claire went on to study psychology and sociology at the University of the West of England, and she refuses to let her eyesight problems restrict her life.

"The people in the Dominican Republic are incredible. They've got so little, but they're so warm and welcoming, and very generous with what they have," she says. "I ended up wondering if I was helping them, or if they were helping me, by showing how even someone who has almost nothing can give so much."

● Claire travelled to the Dominican Republic with Mission Direct. For more go to www.missiondirect.org.