As soon as I heard of the Niall Mellon Township Challenge, I made a conscious decision that if I were to achieve anything this year, it would be to get myself on the November trip to Capetown. After submitting my application (and greatly exaggerating my building skills!), I received confirmation that I had been accepted on the project and was delighted with the news. Each volunteer was required to raise €5,000 to cover travel and accommodation expenses on the trip and to make a contribution towards the building of a house in the township. O’Rourke Reid Law Firm were particularly supportive of my involvement in this project. They were very accommodating with the time off to go to South Africa and the firm also provided me with a very generous donation towards my sponsorship fund.
I decided to hold a charity ball on the 14th of October in the Berkeley Court and to call on all friends, family and clients to support me. For any of you who attended the Charity Ball, you will no doubt agree that the night was a great success and due to David Agar’s wonderful auctioneering skills, the total sum on the night raised was approximately €60,000. Niall Mellon attended the ball himself and his after-dinner speech inspired every single person in the room to do what they could, be it little or large, to contribute to the project.
I set out for Capetown on the 4th of November and to be honest was rather anxious, as I didn’t really know anybody else going on the trip. Within five minutes, however, of walking through the doors of Dublin Airport at 5.30am in the morning, I ran into two boys from my hometown of Randalstown, who had been in my primary class in school and whom I hadn’t seen in over 20 years.
On arrival, the 700 volunteers were split up into colour-coded teams. I was a member of the red team and automatically you sought out your teammates and an instant camaraderie was struck up. I worked with a wonderful team of people, Kate, Gerry, Joe, Tony and Michael. Each of them come from completely different walks of life, but had all come together for this common purpose. The work was tough going – Kate and I were labouring for Joe and Gerry who were both plasterers and to be honest we could hardly deliver the mortar to them quickly enough! The craic on site was absolutely phenomenal, however and although the muscles were tired at the end of the day, I would gladly have worked for another week, as I have never before felt such a sense of achievement in being involved in a project. The only real difficulty which I encountered during the week was the lack of sleep, however that was completely self-inflicted, given that the craic in the hotel bar in the evenings was second to none, with people from every county in Ireland laughing and chatting and often out-singing each other into the wee hours. To be honest I was too scared to go to bed, in case I missed some of the fun!
The experience of working in the township was something I will never forget, from the moment we arrived and walked up the hill into the township, with all of the local women and children clapping and singing, delighted at our arrival. I found the first couple of days completely emotionally draining, as I was encountering sights that I had never ever experienced before. The sheer poverty and degradation was like nothing I had ever seen in my life before. However this was countered with the outstanding pride and dignity of the township people. During my whole week in Capetown I never once saw any of the children playing with a toy, a football or a bicycle, however they were the happiest bunch of children I have ever met in my life, with their wonderful winning smiles and affectionate behaviour. I, like everybody on the trip, took at least four rolls of film and it’s wonderful to sit down with the photographs and to reminisce about all the smiling faces of the children, who welcomed us into their community with such vigour.
Despite a number of substantial setbacks, in particular the destruction of at least 35 houses during the first week which had been built to roof level, but which were brought down during a bad storm, we managed to achieve our aim and on the Friday night, our last night before leaving for home, Niall was able to tell us that we had fully constructed 105 houses. We were all out for dinner together that night and the atmosphere and feeling in the room were exceptional. To say that the week changed my life is in no way an understatement. Being involved in such a huge volunteer mission was such a rewarding experience. The entire project was wonderfully humbling, as the group was made up of brickies and bank managers, lawyers and labourers, electricians and accountants and more. The wonderful diversity of the group is what made it such a huge success, that and the fact that 700 people from every county in Ireland cannot possibly resist a good bit of banter with each other.
I would like to thank everyone who supported me in raising funds for the project, most notably everyone who attended the charity ball. Special thanks to all of my friends and clients who purchased auction items which led to the night being such a wonderful success. I want to thank all of you because you enabled me to go to work on a project that was hugely fulfilling and extremely rewarding. I want to thank Niall also for the opportunity to be involved in a project which has enabled me to help change the lives of a number of families in Capetown and to provide them with what every Irish person regards as a basic human right, a home and for the opportunity to be involved in a project which was most definitely life changing for me.
