Swapping suits and ties for hard hats and wellies, 350 volunteers from across Ireland are due to start work today on a major home-building project for South African shack-dwellers.
Barely rested after yesterday's 6,000- mile flight, the charity workers - including Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán FitzPatrick and billionaire developer Sean Dunne - will begin their new role as bricklayers at the township of Mfuleni outside Cape Town.
The aim is to build by next Saturday up to 50 houses to be handed over to local families currently living in ramshackle homes on a sprawling, poverty-ridden informal settlement.
It is the fourth year volunteers are being sent from Ireland to support the house-building project, which is run by Dublin property developer Niall Mellon.
Mr Mellon (38), who arrived in South Africa earlier this week with 28 foremen, said the volunteers were a "key" part of the operation. While building took place all year round, with 200 local people directly employed at Mfeleni alone, "this is the week that keeps us going".
Mr Mellon founded the charity in 2001 with €1 million of his own funds. He estimates that he has since spent about €500,000 a year and he has pledged €2 million for 2007, when 1,000 volunteers are due to travel in the biggest "building blitz" to date.
"It genuinely makes me proud to be Irish when so many people will travel so far for this - although I have yet to work out who benefits more, the people who get houses or the people who come on the trip," he remarked.
Each volunteer had to raise €4,000 for the trip. About half - including Mr FitzPatrick - are returnees. Of Mr Dunne, the Carlow-born developer who bought Jurys Ballsbridge for more than €200 million last year, Mr Mellon noted: "I didn't know him. He signed up for both himself and his son very quietly".
Also signing up for this year's project was former Boyzone star Keith Duffy.
Conor Lenihan, Minister of State with responsibility for overseas aid, saw off the volunteers. The Government funding agency last year gave €250,000 to the Niall Mellon Townships initiative.
Under the scheme, 1,000 homes have already been built in four Western Cape shanty-towns. About 30 per cent of construction costs are covered by the South African government, with Mr Mellon's charity picking up the rest of the tab.
"We have an operation capable of building thousands of houses a year but we don't have the money, and that is frustrating," said the businessman, who plans to launch a major fundraising drive in the United States shortly.
"In three to four years, we could be the world's biggest house-building charity - if we get the financial backing."
For further information on the charity see www.irishtownship.com