More than 50 Bermudian volunteers will travel to India this summer to build homes for poverty-stricken families.

The Bermuda Overseas Missions charity is to hold an island-wide grub day and denim day on Friday to help fund the student part of the missions trip to Bangalore, the capital city of the Indian state of Karnataka.

David Thompson, the charity’s president, said: “This is the largest group we have ever taken and a testament to the enthusiasm of our volunteers to participate. Of the 56 volunteers, we have 38 students who attend local schools such as CedarBridge Academy and Berkeley Institute as well as mentoring organisations such as Beyond Rugby, which is part of Family Centre.

He added: “We have several families joining us this year which is also a change.”

Mr Thompson explained that the charity has already held two car washes, a tag day and a roti sale to help fund this year’s trip.

He added: “On April 13, we organised an island-wide grub day at the schools with many business participating with their own denim day to support us.”

Over the past 16 years, BOM has taken more than 500 volunteers on over 21 trips to different countries to build homes for more than 100 families in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. The charity is also planning a trip to Montrouis, Haiti, in October to continue its work with the Feed My Lambs orphanage run by Bermudian Phillip Rego.

For more information, contact David Thompson at 295-1078 or e-mail David.thompson@ams.bm