A winning challenge

Margaret Riordan and John Fitzgerald tell EM why helping to build houses in South Africa was a win-win situation for everyone.

"I am delighted to have this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to my fundraising efforts and to draw attention to the Niall Mellon Township Challenge. This is the third year of the project whose goal is to build brick houses for the people of the Imizamo Yethu Township in Cape Town who are currently living in shacks. I only heard about the Niall Mellon volunteer program in mid September and was delighted to be successful in joining as someone else pulled out last minute; one of the main reasons this program appealed to me so much, was that the sponsorship funds collected go directly to the township, so the benefits of everyone's fundraising is very evident.

This year due to the huge response to volunteer the challenge was staggered over two weeks; I was part of the first group of 200 volunteers that arrived in Cape Town on the 28th of October. My days were jam packed, buses left every morning to go to the township at 7.30 and we didn't return till about 18.00. It was hard work but good craic and there is also a great spirit of camaraderie on site.

My week was spent mostly working on a backie (pick-up truck), making sure sites had all the building supplies and water they needed. By the time I was leaving there were 58 houses built to at least roof level, an amazing achievement given that at least half of the work done by day 5 was lost in a storm!

At the end of the two week project 106 houses were completed! To put this in context it means that around 800 residents of the township will have a proper home, running water, electricity and a toilet for the first time in their lives. I'm back just over a month at this stage and never thought the experience of one week would have such an effect. The warm and friendly welcome I got from the people of Imizamo Yethu was amazing and the memories I have will stay with me forever."
Margaret Hayden, ESB National Grid

"At 4am on November 4th, I left home to join 500 other volunteers to take part in the Niall Mellon (Imizamo Yethu) Township Challenge in South Africa. The Challenge was to build 100-120 houses in the township. Houses varied from 500-800 square feet in size and were two and threebedroomed dwellings, each with a bathroom and a kitchen/living area. The challenge involved mobilising 700 people - predominantly Irish builders - over a two-week period in the Imizamo Yethu Township.

Imizamo Yethu is located on a large hillside 3-4 miles from the Atlantic coast and about 20 miles south of Cape Town.

Approximately 200 building volunteers had gone out a week in advance to lay the foundations and to complete as much block work as possible. During the first week, prior to the arrival of teams of plasterers, labourers, carpenters, electricians, painters and plumbers, 10-20 houses were levelled by high winds and inclement weather. Though there were some injuries to one or two township residents, thankfully nobody was seriously injured. Upon our induction, we were advised that to complete a hundred houses would now be very tough but not impossible.

The 2005 Challenge, the third Imizamo Yethu Township Challenge, was very well organised. Breakfast was at 7am and buses left for the site each morning at 7.30am and returned before dusk. A lunch bag was provided each day, there were no scheduled break times and food was generally eaten between tasks. We had lollipops for the children, who were not shy in looking for football jerseys and other goodies that would normally not be available to them.

The volunteers were separated into 6 teams of circa 70 people according to competencies, with a mixture of the various trade skill sets on each team. In return for being prepared to listen and learn, the experienced tradesmen very quickly guided me through what I needed to know. While there were minor setbacks, I was extremely fortunate to be working with such good people who as a team played to their strengths as the pressure came on to deliver. Upon reflection, the fact that the volunteers arrived together, were not paid, and had a common, meaningful and quickly realisable purpose made team-building easy. The Imizamo Yethu challenge was the best teambuilding and personal development event that I have participated in.

I was on the green team and we were allocated twenty specific houses to complete, none of which had blown over in the big wind. I spent my first day driving back and forth from the compound to the green houses around the township loading and unloading timber and supplies. This was a great introduction to the township and I had to quickly memorise the various alleys and cul de sacs where our houses were dispersed. On the second day, I joined the roofers and swapped the security of a 4 x4 and a walkietalkie for the lofty rooftops with a hammer, tape and nails. The roofs were made up of simple wooden A-frame trusses with a c. 30% slope, plastic/felt underlay, wooden facia boards and completed with a tiled finish. Builders commented that it was a long time since they had worked on such a plain design back home, even on garages.

The roofing conditions were challenging with the wind rising strongly, without warning on several occasions. There were rarely more than 4 people on any single roof for safety and productivity reasons. Niall Mellon and the team leaders stressed safety at the induction course and again each morning on the buses. Awareness and accountability for one's own safety was paramount as not all the safety provisions and standards required on Irish building sites were available. There were no major accidents and that of itself was a major achievement by volunteers working under new and difficult conditions on a construction site that was not cleared.

Each day, the weather got progressively hotter, until Thursday November the 10th when the mercury hit 35 degrees celsius. Water intake and dehydration tablets were distributed as the heat began to take its toll. One local woman, with a house from a previous Township Challenge, kindly refrigerated our water bottles on the two hottest days, which made a big difference. The roof on our 19th house was completed on Thursday evening at 18.30hrs and by Friday lunchtime our twentieth house was finished. There was a great sense of team accomplishment on Thursday night

The evening times were our own and presented an opportunity to visit Cape Town's superb restaurants and waterfront. On

Friday evening, I visited the Cape of Good Hope and made it back just in time for a gala dinner, which was arranged in the Cape Town Convention centre. On Saturday, due to a flight delay, I took an opportunistic helicopter tour of the cape peninsula and two oceans with a few other volunteers, which was excellent.

The thing that struck me most was that the challenge was such a win-win for everyone. The locals were very hospitable despite the unavoidable social and economic disadvantage they endured. Many of the children had AIDS, which is a major issue in the townships, yet they were not ostracised. School-going children were impeccably turned out from mud floored huts with no water in impossibly pristine uniforms and seemed keenly aware of their good fortune to get some education. It was a bit surreal to work in the township all day amongst the deprivation and poverty and then to see the touristy wealthy side of Cape Town by night. South Africans that we met espoused the view that the townships would be worse off without the income generated for their residents from tourism and wealthier South African residents. It is clear that there is an incredible challenge for South African leaders to improve the lot of the people in the townships and that this issue will define, and perhaps make or break South Africa as a country in the coming years.

The visible improvement to the township as each new house replaced two/three shacks and alleys were replaced by housed streets was palpable as the days progressed. In total 106 new houses and a school library and computer building were built. The beneficiaries of the 106 new homes were delighted, and the people of Imizamo Yethu were extremely appreciative of the positive effects the initiative is having upon their quality of life and community. Of the 14,000 Imizamo Yethu residents, circa 4,000 are now properly housed with plumbing and electricity. Over the past three years the murder rate in the township has also dropped by 75%. Housebuilding is now ongoing throughout the year with local employees paid for by the township fund. The Premier of Western Cape, the City Manager and Minister Sisulu (Walter Sisulu's daughter) personally thanked the volunteers for their contribution to South Africa's development.

When I arrived home on Sunday the 13th November at 5.30am, the mercury was nestled at zero and it seemed like a long time since I had been home. I was tired and felt very privileged,fulfilled and happy to have taken part in such a remarkable challenge.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all my generous sponsors in ESBI, Coolkeeragh ESB, and ESB, and also ESBI for supporting me and facilitating my participation in the 2005 Imizamo Yethu Township Challenge."
John Fitzgerald, ESBI

Further details on the Challenge can be found on the following website: www.irishtownship.com