After saving their money for a year, nine homeless and low-income men and women from Gatineau were scheduled to fly to Cuba on Monday night for a week-long vacation.

Suzanne Villeneuve, who was homeless for nine years, diligently saved $45 each month for a year to qualify for a week-long vacation in Cuba. (CBC)

The local food bank, shelter, soup kitchen and Centre for Health and Social Services organized the trip, which was started to teach the power of planning, saving and budgeting.

Some of the nine said they had never been on a plane before.

Each participant had to put away $45 every month since last March to qualify for the trip. Twenty people originally signed up and nine reached the goal.

"I was homeless, I was a homeless person for nine years. Prostitution, everything," said Suzanne Villeneauve at a press conference earlier Monday. "I've been clean for two years and five months now, and this project helped me to build my self esteem, my confidence in myself."

Social worker Nancie Martineau came up with the idea.

"Those people used to think day by day," Martineau said. "They don't make any plans, they are not able to project themselves in the future. That's why they don't make any change."

The idea first came to Martineau when her clients told her she was lucky to be able to travel. Martineau told them it wasn't luck — she had to maintain a strict budget to make her trips possible.

Some have questioned whether the money raised could be better spent on basic necessities, but Martineau said powerful lessons like this one can change lives for the better.