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Building hope for African townships
By Fiona Audley
IF YOU have a trade, a paintbrush or just a will to put in a good day’s
work you could help change the fate of an impoverished South African community
with an Ireland-based charity.
Dublin’s Niall Mellon Township Appeal, which has built homes in
underprivileged townships in places like Cape Town since 2002, is calling
on the Irish community in England to join their yearly building blitz
— which sees volunteers building hundreds of badly-needed new homes
in Africa in just a week.
The charity plans to gather 2,000 volunteers for their 2008 project and
held a launch in Birmingham this month to gather interest across the water.
Patrick O’Donnell has been attending the projects for three years
and told The Irish Post: “We need to reach out to those Irish tradesmen
over here who might be able to join this year’s project.
“We hope to bring a team of 70 over from Britain and anyone who
has a trade, can do some labour or just wants to paint houses is more
than welcome.”
The charity largely uses volunteers from the construction industry who
can erect the houses efficiently and quickly.
Last year 1,380 volunteers built 203 houses in the township of Freedom
Park, in Cape Town, housing over 1,000 people.
Birmingham-born Patrick, whose family hails from Mayo and Donegal, added:
“It’s a great experience to go to a place like South Africa
and start a job with nothing but leave hundreds of houses behind you.”
Anyone who wishes to join the November Builders Week in Khayelitsha, one
of the largest townships in Cape Town, will have to make a E500 deposit
with the trust and then raise a further E4,500 before attending the week
long trip.
Patrick explained: “The money covers your flights and hotel for
a week but the majority goes into the building materials we need to actually
erect the houses.”
To download an application form, make a donation to the charity or find
out more about their projects visit www.irishtownship.com |
