In 2003 I was in Cape Town, South Africa and through 'a friend of a friend' was taken on a trip to the township of Imazamo Yethu which lies on a hillside in the picturesque area of Hout Bay, approximately 30 minutes drive from Cape Town.

The appalling living conditions in the township are impossible to describe adequately either in words or pictures and very difficult to reconcile with the general affluence which literally lies across the road from the township in the Hout Bay area.

Imazamo Yethu has a population of approximately 14,000 people living on an area of approximately 40 to 50 acres of rocky land on a hillside overlooking Hout Bay. It is estimated that one in four are aids/hiv positive - some would say that the infection rate is as high as one in three - and the life expectancy is about the mid forties. The absence of old people is quite noticeable but what is even more noticeable is the number of young children running about without any significant parental control. Another very noticeable feature of the township is the labour input of the women who seem to do everything from manual labour to cooking and looking after the children. The men, by and large ,seem to just hang about and drink beer at the weekends.

The townships grew out of the apartheid era when the black population was forced out of their houses and land by the white settlers and left to fend for themselves. They gathered whatever bits of wood and other materials they could and made shelters which they called shacks. Shacks generally measure from about six feet by six feet to nine/ten feet by six feet and can provide shelter for families up to six or more people. They are poorly constructed and suffer from leakages when it rains. They often get blown down by the high winds which can rise in minutes and which are synonymous with the area at certain times of the year. Another major hazard is fires caused by careless use of kerosene which is used for cooking and heating. Because of the close proximity of the shacks to each other and because of the highly flammable materials used in their construction, fire can spread very rapidly and it is not unusual for up to thirty or forty shacks to get burned down as a result of a fire starting out in one, leaving many families without shelter until such time as they can collect sufficient materials to rebuild their damaged shacks.

My visit to Imazamo Yethu left an indelible mark on me and when I heard about the Niall Mellon Township Challenge I felt I just had to take part and make an effort to improve the lives of the people of the township who have suffered so much at the hands of the white population through the awful apartheid era (which incidentally only ended over ten years ago ).

Niall Mellon is a self made millionaire builder/developer from Rathfarnham in Dublin who saw the deprivation of the township and decided that he would do something about it. He launched the Niall Mellon Township Challenge in 2003 by investing one million euros of his own funds and an additional one million euros donated by a builder associate from Tipperary. He then recruited the help of 150 Irish volunteers mainly made up of tradesmen. This group of volunteers raised a minimum of £3000.00 each to take part and spent one week in the township building houses. By the end of the week 25 two bedroom bungalows with kitchen, bathroom and living area had been completed and handed over to the lucky recipients who pay a mortgage of approximately €25 per month until the house is paid for.

Each house costs approximately €7,500.00 to build. The South African government gives a grant of about €2,500.00 towards the cost.

Having heard Des Cahill, R.T.E, broadcasting from the township in 2003, I made up my mind to volunteer the following year. Together with 350 Irish volunteers I travelled to Cape Town in October 2004 and we succeeded in building 50 houses. Having been caught by the 'BUG' I felt I had to continue and again travelled to Cape Town this year with a group of 200 volunteers for the first week and another 500 the following week making a total of 700 volunteers with the aim of building in excess of 100 houses for a very deserving and grateful people of the township of Imazamo Yethu.

I was struck by the poverty of the township but what struck me most was the gentleness and graciousness of the people who seemed to bear no grudge towards those who subjected them and previous generation to a hell which has not yet ended by any means. The beauty of the landscape is exceeded only by the beauty of the people and their display of gratitude to all of us who felt privileged to be in a position to give a helping hand to a very deserving people. Their welcome and gratitude will live with me forever.

South Africa has come a long way since the apartheid era but still has a long way to go. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Michael Corduff

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