Builders for CharityWith the success of the Niall Mellon Township Trust over the last number of years, locals in the South African townships would be forgiven for thinking Ireland was a land of saints and builders.
Now in its fifth year, the Trust's annual Irish builders jamboree and charity-exodus to South Africa has already resulted in nearly 1,000 houses in such townships as Imizamo Yethu and Mfuleni and further expansion this year will add a massive 5,000 new dwellings to what is already a remarkable achievement.
Along with the Trust's other on-going projects that involve the training of South African tradesmen by Irish builders, and the employment of 500 local staff, it is expected this coming November, that 1,300 Irish builders, labourers and specialist trades people (there's a waiting list of a further 260) will, over the course of a week, take part in the fifth township challenge - The Blitz - building 200 houses.
Replying to the suggestion that the South Africans must think the Irish are mad, the Trust's CEO Hugh Brennan puts the achievement in perspective. "The South Africans can't get over it. Out there they'll come up to you and ask you, why are you out here? And why is a white man doing menial work for a black man?
One woman living in a shack studying to be a lawyer said to me, 'for years the black man has been working for the white man. And, now you have come out to work for the black man. So, now we are equal. For me this signals the end of apartheid'."
The Trust, whose aim is replace life in a tin shack with quality built low-cost housing, launched a new initiative - Sites for Africa - that invites property developers to donate sites in Ireland on which a house can be built, furnished and sold to raise funds to build more homes in South Africa.
The idea came about from conversations Niall Mellon (who set up the charity) and Hugh Brennan had with Kilbride Developments' Gerry Nolan and Denis O'Riordain, an electrical contractor in Cork.
Backing up his idea with the donation of a site, Gerry Nolan - himself a veteran of, and ever-present in, Niall Mellon's South African workforce - galvanised the local community near Racecourse Road in Roscommon and now No 14 Corraun Village, Roscommon, with the help of labour, fixtures and fittings donated by local suppliers and subcontractors, is on the market at a starting price of €250,000. The three-bedroom semi-detached furnished dwelling comes with appliances,furniture, soft furnishings, alarm, house insurance, heating and timber flooring.
Brennan sees longevity in the project with Simon Kennedy in Kilkenny already committing a site and a number of other developers eager to get involved. It is envisaged that by 2010, 100 such ventures will be added to the Trust's worthwhile coffers.
Gerry Nolan has witnessed such benevolence at first hand. "On the second day of the first trip we were taken out to a hill overlooking the township of Imizamo Yethu and it looked like one big galvanised sheet. It was unbelievable to see people living in those conditions at the side of a hill in what we would call hen houses. In fact you wouldn't put hens in them because they wouldn't stay in them. Three years later, we stopped on the same hill and you could see the difference in the red and grey roofs on the houses we'd built. We never thought so little money would make such a difference to peoples' lives".
Not sitting on its laurels the Trust will open a house-factory in November in the region with the intention of manufacturing 5,000 timber frame or concrete panelled houses a year. Providing employment locally, the South African government sees the initiative as a pilot project that, if rolled out all over the country, could solve its housing crisis by 2014. Mad Irish builders and Roscommon saints - sure where would you get it? Apparently, only in South Africa.
14 Corraun Village is for sale through 42 local estate agents. See www.irishtownship.com
