Ireland's loss can be Africa's gain

Ireland’s leading housing charity is offering unemployed Irish building consultants the opportunity to maintain their skills while helping to build communities in some of the poorest regions of South Africa. Respond! Housing Association is seeking volunteers with engineering and quantity surveying experience to assist the charity with their house and community building projects in the Kwa-Zulu Natal region.

According to Respond! spokesperson Aoife Walsh, this project provides an excellent opportunity to those recently made unemployed due to the recent slump in the construction sector.
“We are aware of the excellent human resources currently going to waste because of the massive drop in construction. It is commonly accepted that it will be some time before the sector recovers, and it may never reach levels witnessed in the middle of the last decade. In the meantime, we are offering qualified engineers and quantity surveyors the opportunity to maintain and update their skills while also contributing their knowledge and experience to a worthy cause.”

Respond! Housing Association has been working in partnership with the South African National and Provincial Government and the local community in Kwa-Zulu Natal for the past three years. Key projects include the construction of integrated housing on 57 hectares, training and educational facilities, recreational and sporting facilities, crèches, day care centres and medical facilities for HIV and Aids sufferers. The charity is seeking qualified professionals to assist them in designing, planning and managing these developments. All the expenses of these professionals will be covered by Respond!. All of Respond!’s on-site work is done through native labour and Respond! prepares for this by offering basic building technology courses to young men and women in the communities.

“Whether in Ireland or South Africa, Respond! Housing Association has always been committed to the creation of vibrant, socially integrated communities. Central to all of our work in South Africa is the objective of sustainability. We are working with the local community to ensure that all communities created can be maintained and developed by its residents” added Walsh. “We are hoping that some of those who have suffered because of the recession would be willing to give their time to Respond! Housing Association. Assisting us with this valuable work will help some of the most vulnerable people and communities in the world.”

Anyone interested in this new volunteering initiative can contact the charity by emailing pr@respond.ie or by calling 0818 357901.