This article is from page 31 of the 2009-11-03 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 31 JPG
THREE MEN from west Clare will travel to South Africa later this week, where they will help to build new houses for families living on the breadline.
Kevin Burke and Pat McMahon from Cooraclare and Kevin Whelan from Kilkee will join dozens of other volunteers from across the country in the Niall Mellon Township Trust Building Blitz. A total of 1,000 volun- teers will complete 100 new houses in Cape Town, which will replace shacks that the families currently occupy.
Mr Burke and Mr McMahon trav- elled with the Niall Mellon team
last year and were so moved by what they experienced that they both de- cided to undertake the trip again this year. Each of the three men had to raise €5,000 for the trip and they are indebted to the people of west Clare who generously helped them out.
Mr Burke, who currently lives in Killimer, is a part-time farmer and also drives machinery for Clare County Council. He explained how he got involved in this project.
“T was talking to a friend in Feakle and he said his brother was going. I said I’d like to do that some time. That was last year. We were accepted. We went last year and we said we would like to give it another shot,’ he said.
The group spent almost two weeks building houses, in intense heat, but they were pleased to be able to give something to those less well off than WNIT Aone
“It was a complete eye-opener. It was unreal. The living conditions were unreal. You would be crying coming out of it, but it was a great experience and well worth it. I can’t wait to go again,” he said.
Pat McMahon also said the experi- ence was amazing last year. “It was unreal. Those people are living in a totally different world to what we are living in. Most people haven’t got a clue what the recession is here com- pared to what they have out there. A
lot of them have no education,’ he said.
“When everyone is out there to- gether, it is easy to do the work, es- pecially knowing that the families are going to get proper homes out of it,’ said Mr McMahon, who is a wind turbine installation technician.
He paid tribute to those who helped him to raise the funds to take part in the challenge.
‘People have been very good, espe- cially with the recession. They came in their droves with money,’ he said.
The three men organised various fundraisers including a head shave, table quiz, bag pack and céili. All of the events were very well supported.