This was Stephen\'s second year to travel to South Africa with the Neil Mellon Challenge where the aim is to provide houses with electric and running water for families who live in squalor in the shanty towns around Cape Town. Two or three families may be housed in each of the houses.

The group arrived in Cape Town late on Friday, November 17 and by Saturday morning they were straight to work. They were split into teams with Stephen, a blocklayer with the green team. During their stay the teams worked from 6am to 8pm and concluded at 2.30pm on Saturday November 25.

The days were long and the work was tough but as Stephen explains it was all very worthwhile: Our target was to build 50 to 60 houses and fortunately no problems arose and we managed to exceed our target by building 70 houses which I found very rewarding. The scheme has been running for four years now and the 70 houses built this year has been its biggest achievement to date. I feel when we all saw the conditions these people were living in, it spurred us on.

The work that Neil Mellon has undergone in the shanty towns has struck a chord with many people and during last year Gerry Kelly made a show for UTV detailing the work that was going on.

This year former Boyzone and Coronation Street star Keith Duffy joined Stephen and the rest of the group in the construction of the houses, as did the main property developer in Dublin, Sean Dunne. The help that the people of the townships were receiving from the Irish builders also did not go unnoticed by prominent South Africans.

On the fourth day we had an unexpected visit from Archbishop Desmond Tutu. We took an hour off and he greeted us in a makeshift marquee where he gave us a very warm welcome and praised us on our achievements to date. South African government officials such as the Lord Mayor of Cape Town also visited, all of whom seemed slightly embarrassed, said Stephen.

The most rewarding aspect of the week came on the last day when the teams handed over the houses to the people of the township. Each team picked a house to hand over to one of the families and it was very moving. The celebration and greeting they gave us was extraordinary.
It was an unbelievable sight to see so many families happy that they were now going to have proper housing, stated the Enniskillen man.

He added: Its summer time in South Africa at present and all the kids were off school. Rarely would you see any child crying or fighting, they were all so happy and all they wanted to do was sing and dance. So little means so much to them.

Next year the target is to bring 1000 people out to a different township and the South Africans have agreed that for every volunteer from Ireland they will match that with a volunteer from South Africa. It is Stephen¹s aim to be back as one of those volunteers in 2007.

This would not have been possible without the help and support of all those who gave donations, both big and small. I would like to thank all those who played golf and the staff and pupils of the Integrated College, Enniskillen. I would also like to express thanks on behalf of Neil Mellon to all those people who gave donations. I had 13,000 euro collected on leaving for South Africa, this is now sitting at 15,000 euro which fully completed two houses and will provide homes for four to six families. I was very proud to be part of the team in South Africa and hopefully next year I will be part of the 1000 strong team.