Dunstan High School pupils are preparing for the trip of a lifetime - building houses for impoverished people and helping an orphanage in Cambodia.
A group of 19 pupils, along with teachers Richard Ferguson, Michelle Ruffell and adult helpers, are going to the developing country in December this year.
Mr Ferguson, a Te Reo Maori and social studies teacher, said they were working with an organisation called the Tabitha Foundation which helped build houses for poor people in the capital Phnom Penh .
It cost $US1000 ($NZ1490) to build a house, which would employ a ''Cambodian local to start that project'', and the school group would finish it off when they got there, Mr Ferguson said.
They would help nail down the floors and put up walls on the ''sheds on stiles'' and try to work on about 10 houses.
The one-roomed houses were dry and waterproof, and had gaps in the walls for windows but no glass, he said.
They would also help at the Centre for Children's Happiness where they would ''entertain'' the children.
''Most of the kids there have been abandoned on the rubbish dump by their parents, some of them actually being raised by wild dogs,'' he said.
The group planned to take $20,000 with them on the trip and had raised about $15,000 so far with support from the community, including Alexandra Rotary Club and Alexandra District Club.
Out of 65 applications from pupils at the school, only 19 were selected.
Their trip includes five nights in Siem Reap and five nights in Phnom Penh, with two nights in Singapore ''to show the kids the contrast'' of poverty and luxury in Southeast Asia, he said.
Miss Ruffell said it was a ''service trip'' about giving back because they were ''so rich in our lives and we don't even know it''.
''For some of them it's going to be such an eye opener and I hope it ignites some kind of flame in them that they want to do this kind of work when they leave school.''
The school is hosting a quiz night at 7pm tonight at Alexandra Community House to help raise the remaining money needed for the trip.
