It’s better to help than to hate: Niall Mellon Township Trust
Posted on November 24th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,751 views
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu has fully endorsed the Niall Mellon Township Trust.
While some hate, others choose to help, which is certainly the case with Niall Mellon, an Irish businessman who in 2002 at the age of 35 visited Cape Town and was touched by the grinding poverty of those living in our shanty towns, in particular the one in Hout Bay called The Imizamo Yethu township.
Despite opposition from many of the wealthy white residents of Hout Bay, Mellon set up the Niall Mellon Township Trust and together with Irish volunteers built 450 homes in Imizamo Yethu. Since then the trust has built 10 000 homes in the Western Cape, and is expanding their efforts to include Gauteng. Their first project up north is in Thembisa.
In 2002, despite it being 8 years after Apartheid had officially ended in South Africa the attitudes of white property owners in Hout Bay were still deeply racist with them clinging to the idea that Hout Bay was “their area” and many openly opposed the development of Imizamo Yethu because it would cement their presence in the area and thwart their goal of forcing them out.
“It is amazing what is happening. Some of the rich whites from across the river, those we work for, are beginning to help us. When we lived in shacks they would not even come into the township, but now they see we are human beings.
“A few whites are paying to build their staff homes, and others are helping by buying things like furniture. We have dignity and pride now because of our homes, so they see us differently, but it is the Irish who led by example.” – Sophia Morris, one of the first recipients in 2003 of a Niall Mellon Township Trust house.
Sophia Morris, a resident of Imizamo Yethu, said that things have changed somewhat since those days and nowadays some local white residents are pitching in to help uplift the township by building houses for their staff and furnishing them. But, she notes, it took the Irish to lead the way.
This is a sad indictment of the lack of transformation of many white attitudes towards black South Africans who still cling to their old Apartheid privileges and selfishly do not want to help others. This is an extremely short sighted attitude and tends to sow the seeds for violent revolution where the disenfranchised rise up and take what they need and want by force of arms as has happened in many impoverished parts of the world throughout human history.
UCT has joined in supporting Mellon’s efforts by requiring that their CEM students spend some of their time involved in building Niall Mellon sponsored houses in the townships. In September 2007, UCT students worked in Mfuleni township in Blue Downs which is close to Khayelitsha. A student who was involved in that project blogged about his experiences here.
At least one local construction business, Saint-Gobain, has also joined in and so far contributed over R1 million worth of building materials. Saint-Gobain staff also participated in a volunteer day in Thembisa, Gauteng.
The Niall Mellon Township Trust is most famous for its so-called “building blitzes” in which a large number of houses are completed by thousands of volunteers in a matter of days. The next building blitz is in 4 days time. More details of this can be found here.
If you wish to get involved personally and put your shoulder to the wheel to build a better South Africa for all, then you can volunteer your time, labour and money and participate in physically building a home for someone less fortunate than yourself. Details are available at these links: Corporate, Individual, NGOs.
Tags: Hout Bay, Imizamo Yethu, Niall Mellon Township Trust
Filed under Building a better South Africa | 3 Comments »
Hout Bay Green Faire – Saturday November 29 2008
Posted on November 18th, 2008 by Richard Catto 1,042 views
Envirochild is hosting a ‘Green Faire’ as part of its Hout Bay Transition Town campaign on Saturday 29 November. This is to educate the community and create awareness regarding sustainable lifestyle options, in order to support the transition to a sustainable Hout Bay and Cape Town Metro!
It will be a fun day for the whole family with music, games, movies, tasty wholesome food and lots of interesting stalls. A wide range of alternative, practical, healthy and eco friendly products and services will be offered.
This will be a showcase of renewable energy, ‘green’ technology and services supporting a sustainable lifestyle.
The focus will be on exposing these to the people of Hout Bay and surrounding suburbs, especially home owners and developers, and with many activities for children and students as drivers of change.
There will be exhibits of grey water systems, solar & wind power and waterless composting toilets.
For the builder or homeowner there will be an ‘eco-building’ exhibit with information on Hout Bay’s straw-bale house, examples of earth bricks and the opportunity to sign up for ‘cobbing’ workshops.
There will be demonstrations of how to grow food at home and other available land. There will also be the opportunity to sign up for organic food growing courses in Hout Bay.
The food stalls will promote healthy, vegetarian, organic food in low-impact packaging.
The 3R’s (Recycle Reuse Reduce) will be demonstrating how to separate your garbage, clean it and put in the correct container: simple recycling.
‘Water Wise’ and water saving devices e.g. low-flow showerheads will be demonstrated and available for the public to purchase.
There will be an exhibit of renewable fuels such as bio-diesel made from used cooking oil.
The Talent exchange will be there to let you know about alternative ways of buying and selling goods and services without using money.
The ‘Awareness Cinema’ will show current ‘green’, thought provoking movies, such as ‘Escape from Suburbia’ and the ‘11th hour’. These will be screened in the Hall and discussions afterwards are encouraged. Talks about Transition Towns and dealing with the ‘change’ will take place.
The stalls will be arranged in concentric circles with the children’s edutainment area in the middle. This ‘magic circle’ will be aimed at kids to promote ‘green’ thinking and practises through puppet shows and fun. ‘Come and Play’ of the HB Trust will be teaching hula hooping and poi skills to improve co-ordination.
For the youth, ‘Sentinel Boardriders‘ will be setting up a ‘half-pipe’ at the entrance to the Faire, as well as an info display, to promote the Hout Bay Youth Lifestyle Centre, which aims to provide as many positive & constructive opportunities for the local politically divided youth from all cultural backgrounds. Providing healthy & exciting alternatives to sitting around getting bored, which often results in youth contributing their abundant energy to negative & destructive activities.
Even the music will be powered by renewable energy (solar power), with local artists performing live to entertain visitors, an open drumming circle and local Hout Bay performers ‘Shamanzi’ presenting their amazing music and firedancing show at the end of the day.
This ‘Green Faire’ is a fundraising and awareness raising event, held in the spirit of community and we encourage all locals to participate or visit us on this innovative day!!
The Green Faire will be held outside the Hout Bay Community Cultural Centre, (the old Bowling Club) adjacent to Hout Bay common and market on Baviaanskloof and Main Rds.
Entrance is from R5 (low income), R10 for those who can afford it, and free for kids under 12. Gates open from 9AM until sunset.
Please visit our website www.greenhoutbay.org for more info.
Tags: Green Faire, Hout Bay
Filed under environment | No Comments »
