An enthusiastic group of 150 volunteers joined us on Saturday 24th April in Wallacedene to help complete 8 houses, 2 of which were handed over to the beneficiaries at the end of the day.

The 150 volunteers were made up of different groups from around Cape Town including: UCT, Standford and Tsiba students, Forward in Faith Youth Group and 1st Contact Accountants.

They all arrived on site at 8.30am eager to start work straight away. The local school children were there to sing them on their way as they walked to the houses they would be working on. Everyone got stuck into work immediately –  blocklaying,  painting and mixing cement. By 10am the sun was getting stronger but that didn’t stop the work progressing or the volunteers energy dwindling. There was great team spirit among everyone and even a little bit of healthy competition between a few teams!

By 12pm everyone was ready for some lunch and a cool drink. The volunteers made their way back up to the compound and relaxed for about 15 minutes before being whisked away again by Paul Blake (one of our Development Facilitators). Paul brought the volunteers down to the local school where the gardening team from our Irish Blitz in November 2009 built a new garden which included a play area, football pitch and vegetable garden for the children.

Back to work at 1pm and the final push to finish our target number for the day! The painting teams were busy with the finishing touches to the houses that were being handed over – windows cleaned, door frames varnished and ribbon on the door!

Everyone gathered at 3.30pm for the handover of the two houses. 2 representatives from the various volunteer groups were asked to handover the keys and scissors for the ceremonial ribbon to be cut.

Both beneficiaries were delighted to be receiving a new house and it was an emotional experience not only for the beneficiaries but also for the volunteers. Having lived in a shack all their lives they are extremely happy to be able to offer a better future for their children to grow up in. The ribbon was cut and everyone was invited in to see their new houses – a very joyous occasion!

Mellon Housing would like to thank all the volunteers who participated – it was a truly successful and uplifting day and we hope you enjoyed it as much as we did!

Our next build in Cape Town will be on the 21st May please click here for further information.

To see the rest of the picture from the day click here