AN ATTACHMENT to a Bill due before US Congress shortly will direct $5 million (€3.2 million) to the Niall Mellon Township Trust housing charity if it is passed, the charity’s founder has said.
Niall Mellon told The Irish Times that following a speech he gave to the Congressional Black Caucus in Washington in February, Congressman Donald Payne agreed to recommend that $5 million be directed to the charity to help in its work in South Africa. The recommendation will be “earmarked” or attached to a Bill due before Congress shortly.
The charity gained the support of Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, speaker at the US Congress, and of Senator Harry Reid, US senate majority leader, after Mr Mellon had separate private meetings with both politicians.
Mr Mellon said he travelled to Washington with Archbishop Desmond Tutu to make a case directly to top US politicians. “Desmond Tutu and I are a good team – he’s my crowd-puller and I present the details,” he said.
He said it was a great honour that the young charity was received at such a high level on Capitol Hill, and American politicians were full of praise for the numbers of Irish volunteers taking part in the project.
He said that following his presentation, Mr Payne, chairman of the Congress sub-committee on Africa and global health, travelled to South Africa to see the work of the trust at first hand. He then decided to support funding the project.
Mr Mellon said the “earmark” was not just important to the charity for the amount of money that would be donated, but was also a stamp of approval from the highest level of the American administration.
He said the trust would build 7,000 houses in South Africa this year, generating employment for 2,000 South Africans. The US money would go towards developing the world’s first charity-owned superhousing factory, he said.
