The Niall Mellon Township Trust is a house building charity that builds houses throughout the year in the townships of South Africa. It runs its own skills development programme, training people from those townships in a wide range of construction disciplines. It also runs a short-term volunteer programme bringing volunteers from around the country and abroad to build houses in the townships.
The trust was established by Niall Mellon in 2002 with the aim of providing quality social housing for impoverished communities in South Africa. Headquartered in Ireland and with offices in South Africa and the USA, it has built some 15 000 homes to date in numerous townships around the country, mainly in the Cape and Gauteng.
Each one of us can play our part in solving the housing crisis in South Africa. The trust set up its Volunteer Build Programme to enable anyone to get involved – as an individual or within groups from corporates, non-government organisations, schools or other institutions. Volunteers are invited to give up one day to participate in the programme to build homes for families living in shacks. No building experience is required as the teams of volunteers are guided by the trust’s in-house building experts. To date more than 10 000 people have volunteered and participated in this programme.
The trust works closely with the South African government and has been recognised internationally for its approach to delivering quality social housing.
