How it all started... by Leon O'Farrell
Niall Mellon Foundation
In 1992 an irishman Niall Mellon went to cape town on holiday with his family he did the usual things sunbathed ,went to the beach etc,one day he went on a city tour and he was shocked to see so many people living in shacks 200,000 in all.
He went to a hardware store bought shovels, picks, wheelbarrows etc and started to clear the ground for foundations,all the coloured people gathered around thought he was crazy,here was this white irishman 6,000 miles from home helping them where their own government woulnnt help.
Before the end of the week he had 500 people helping him and so it started.Six years later he is the biggest provider of social housing in South Africa.
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We worked all week in the sun,rain and sandstorms but nobody was going to stop work at the end of the week we had completed 203 houses ,a community centre and a park and playground.
At the opening ceremony we were all cheering doing the Mexican wave the athmosphere was amazing, looking all around you could see county flags everywhere, Dublin, Meath, Westmeath, Derry etc ,I'd say there was someone there from every county in ireland.
On the way out of the site for the last time we all threw our tools,boots,t-shirts over the fence to the people in the shacks.Iwould recommend this charity trip to anyone you will come back a better person and you"ll find it very hard not to go back year after
My Experience
After 3 hours sleep we jumped on the busses and arrived at Freedom Park one of the community of shacks that we were about to transform into proper solid block houses.
We were greeted with song, laughter and dance and cries of thank you,bless you , thank god your here, and i knew how Niall felt on that day 6 years ago.
The South African people are very like the irish they have the same sense of humour and you cannot help but bond with them immediatly.
How it all started
