Saturday 29th October 2005
A lone bagpiper led a group of 200 Irish volunteers into the Cape Town township of Imizamo Yethu on Saturday 29th October 2005. Hundreds of township residents lined the streets to welcome back the Irish to South Africa. This group of charity workers form part of the 2005 Niall Mellon Township Challenge. The charity, set up by Dubliner Niall Mellon, aims to improve the living conditions of residents of the township.
The 200 men and women form part of a 700 strong contingent from every county in Ireland who will be building brick homes in Hout Bay over the next two weeks. This is the third Township Challenge and by far the largest to date. It is the biggest exodus of Irish charity workers to an event overseas with double the number of people making the six thousand mile trip to Cape Town this year. Our target is the most ambitious yet - to build at least 100 brick houses over the fortnight.
So huge was the response to Niall Mellon's call, that this year's Township Challenge is being staggered over two weeks. 200 volunteers arrived in Cape Town after a 12 hour flight late on Friday night. Despite the late arrival, all were up early on Saturday morning to begin building the new houses. The other 500 volunteers arrive next Friday the 4th of November 2005 and will be working flat out to complete the 100 houses in two weeks. If they achieve their target, the lives of 1000 Imizamo Yethu residents will be changed dramatically for the better.
This week's volunteers have been divided into five teams and each has an identity colour: red, navy, light blue, yellow and green. While it is a smaller group than the batch coming out on the 4th of November it is essential that they hit their targets for the Township Challenge to be on track to meet the overall aim of 100 brick homes. The majority of this week's workers are block-layers and labourers, although there are also some carpenters and electricians and one plumber!
The volunteers come mainly from the construction industry in Ireland. They are made up of block-layers, labourers, carpenters, electricians, plumbers and property developers. About one-fifth of the volunteers come from other walks of life including the police force, teachers, social workers, housewives and psychologists. Each has had to raise a minimum of 4,000 euros to make this trip. The majority of this money goes towards building materials for the new homes. While men make up the bulk of the volunteers, seventy women are also signed up for this year's Challenge.
