The Niall Mellon Township Trust is hosting an information evening in the Clayton Hotel tomorrow, Thursday 19 June at 7pm.

Guest speaker for the event is Hugh Brennan, CEO Niall Mellon Township Trust (Ireland and South Africa), who will outline progress for the 2008 Building Blitz, which takes place in the township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town from 28 November to 6 December this year.

The meeting is open to all registered volunteers for the 2008 Building Blitz and anyone who is interested in helping with fundraising activities or learning more about the charity.

This year, 70 Galway men and women will travel to South Africa as part of a 2,000-strong Irish contingent for the sixth annual Building Blitz. During their stay, they will build 250 high quality houses for the community in Khayelitsha, one of the biggest townships in the Cape. Established in 1984, in the Apartheid era, this is a desperately overcrowded township with up to three families in shacks on one tiny plot.

Speaking in advance of Thursday's meeting, Hugh Brennan congratulated the Galway volunteers on their fundraising efforts to date. "The support the Niall Mellon Township Trust has received from Galway for the past number of years has been phenomenal. We are very grateful for the tremendous efforts of local individuals in fundraising on the ground and hard labour on the building sites in the townships."

With all places now filled for volunteers on November's Building Blitz, Hugh is encouraging the people of Galway to support their local volunteers in reaching their fundraising goals. "The Niall Mellon Township Trust believes in a world where every person lives in a home which enables them to develop to their fullest potential.

"This is why we have set ourselves a high target of building 6,000 houses in South Africa this year, including 250 houses in Khayelitsha this November during the building blitz and to do this we need to raise €10 million. I would encourage everyone in Galway city and county to get behind their local volunteers and support them in their fundraising activities.

For more information, log onto www.townshiptrust.com.

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