Largest Building Blitz to take place in Cape Town

By Henry Booysen
02 November 2007

This evening more than one thousand three hundred volunteers will be coming to Cape Town to build houses in Mitchells Plain. It will be the biggest initiative of its kind in Cape Town.

The volunteers mostly from Ireland are from the UK, US, across Europe, Canada and Australia, and eighty percent are involved in the construction industry.

The Building Blitz as it is better known is an annual one week volunteer trip arranged by the Niall Melon Township Trust, aims to provide impoverished families living in shacks with houses equipped with the rooms, kitchen and bathroom, water, electricity and the necessary sanitation.

“Our 1380 volunteers are hoping to build 200 houses, a community centre and a garden of hope,” says director of the Niall Melon Township Trust Deidre Grant.