Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu visited Dublin yesterday to offer his support to an Irish charity that builds new homes for shack-dwellers in South Africa.
Some 700 Irish volunteers are expected to begin travelling next week to Cape Town to build at least 100 brick houses for residents of Imizamo Yethu as part of the 2005 Niall Mellon Township Challenge.
It is the third challenge undertaken by the charity.
Archbishop Tutu met the founder of the project, Dublin property developer Niall Mellon, yesterday.
He said that the initiative would make a real difference to the lives of thousands of ordinary South Africans in Cape Town.
"I am so proud of the Irish volunteers who are giving their time and money to help my people," he said. "The generosity of Irish people involved in this charity leaves me breathless."
Mr Mellon thanked Archbishop Tutu for his continuing support of the challenge.
"The speech which Archbishop Tutu made at our gala dinner last year to mark the end of the township challenge was extremely moving," he said.
"It played a major role in motivating many of our volunteers into signing up again for this year's challenge."
The volunteers, largely made up of workers in the building industry from all over Ireland, raised a minimum of €4,000 each to take part in the project, and more than 160 will be working with the charity for the third time.
The first challenge took place in 2003 when 150 builders travelled to Cape Town and built 25 brick houses in Imizamo Yethu. Last year 350 volunteers built 50 houses.
The first group of 200 builders will leave Dublin next Friday, with the second team travelling on November 4th.
