Niall Mellon
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Niall Mellon grew up in Ballyroan, South County Dublin, one of a large family. He demonstrated entrepreneurial flair from an early age, selling fire extinguishers door to door from the age of 14. It was in property deals that Niall Mellon made his fortune but it is for his charity work that he is more well known, in particular his efforts to improve the housing of the disadvantaged in South Africa. In 2002, aged 35, he changed his life and began to spend most of his time working to help the poor instead of pursuing more profits. He formed a house building charity initially with his own funds and this young charity has become one of the world's largest house building charities in a few short years, building 5,000 houses in 2007 alone. His efforts in this regard have earned him personal praise from many quarters including Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu . He has also been honoured by Dublin City Council. He has also been awarded a Doctorate in Philosophy by the Dublin Institute of Technology and widely recognised for his efforts to encourage the spirit of volunteerism.In November 2007 almost 1,400 Irish Volunteers travelled on the Niall Mellon Township Trust one week annual building blitz to Capetown and it is estimated that by the end of 2008 over 5,000 Irish Volunteers will have participated in one of his annual overseas building trips.[1]
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[edit] Niall Mellon Township Initiative
In 2002, Niall Mellon, while visiting South Africa, was so moved by the plight of the residents of Imizamo Yethu Township in Cape Town that he set up "The Niall Mellon Township Challenge". Current participating countries are Ireland, UK, South Africa, US and France.
[edit] Imizamo Yethu
Niall visited the Township, met with community leaders and undertook to build 450 Block houses to replace the "cardboard, corrugated iron, hardboard" shacks in which they were living. Then in a pioneering venture he organised for 153 volunteers to raise €3,000 each and to give up 9 days in December and travel 6,000 miles to Imizamo Yethu to build 25 houses in just 6 and a half working days. So successful was this "blitz" that in 2004 he persuaded 350 volunteers to raise €4,000 and perform a similar feat and build 50 houses in the same time-scale. In November last, 650 volunteers raised €4,000 each and built 106 houses in a two-week period. Work continues throughout the year by local contractors and they have now met their target and completed, 450 block houses in Imizamo Yethu.
[edit] Netreg
Netreg is situated on the Cape Flats and was established in the 1960s as part of a new "coloured" township after the forced removals under the Group Areas Act of black communities from the centre of the city. Over the next six months the NMTI will build almost 200 homes for those who have been living in shacks in the back yards of other Netreg residents' homes. The community here have been waiting for twenty years for proper housing.
Construction at Netreg began in January 2006 with builders from the first township, Imizamo Yethu, transferring their skills to builders from the local community. The project is a collaboration between the NMTI and the Netreg community, facilitated by Development Action Group (DAG). Netreg residents identified 3.6 hectares of land suitable for housing development a decade ago. The development plan was given the green light by the City of Cape Town in 2004 and infrastructure was developed last year, clearing the way for building to begin. The 191 project beneficiaries were involved in the design of semi-detached houses which are now being built.
In March, forty members of University of Cape Town (UCT) Rugby Club gave up their Saturday to lend a hand building homes in the new township. They are the first volunteers the NMTI have had at Netreg and they laboured for the day laying foundations for nine homes. The volunteers were made up mainly of UCT students on the under 20 teams and were led by former Springbok number 8 and Polar explorer, Dugald MacDonald.
[edit] Mfuleni
Mfuleni is a relatively new township about 40 kilometres from Cape Town. It is a predominantly black township, although there are also some coloured members of the community. Mfuleni is a suburb of Blue Downs, close to the sprawling township of Khayelitsha. Around 7,000 people live in this township. Most were moved there from the late 1990s following flooding and fires in different townships across the Cape, such as Phillipi, Nyanga and Khayelitsha. Hence, the mixed nature of the community here.
The Townships Initiative will begin building in extension 6 in Mfuleni in April. They will build 209 houses there by the end of this year, taking the same number of families out of shacks and into decent brick homes. These houses will be free-standing and, in an effort to become more sustainable and environmentally friendly, solar panels to heat the hot water geyser will be installed in these homes. The initiatve hope solar panels will become a regular feature of all their new homes. They are also exploring other ways to be more eco-friendly in their approach to building homes and communities. Niall Mellon Trust is not without it critic's regarding the transporting of several hundred Irish people, more than half way around the world, to build what some have described as brightly painted, Gerry built, glorified shacks, not dissimilar to one built by the old regime. Also the fact, that each person travelling from Ireland has to secure approx £3000 each to pay for air fares, and to pay for luxury Cape Town hotels. Money critics suggest would be better spent employing local labour to build the homes instead of spending it on air fares and luxury hotels. With the money going straight to employing locals to build , several hundred extra homes a year could be constructed. Niall Mellon has also come under pressure to rename the trust, to a name other than his own, as some people claim it is one big ego trip for Mellon. Mellon is also under pressure to confirm or denie that he made part of his personal fortune under the old regime in S.Africa, and that he has several luxury homes there, and that he uses trust funds to pay for his frequent trip to S.Africa. Supporetrs of Mellon claim that the local people who are allocated the homes are quite happy as anything has to be better than a tin and plastic shack.
