Irish Build 200 Homes for S. Africa Poor

Irish Build 200 Homes for S. Africa Poor

ASSOCIATED PRESS/AP ONLINE

CLARE NULLIS

Damian O‚Driscoll poses for a photograph toward the end of a building blitz by nearly 1,400 Irish volunteers Thursday, Nov. 8, 2007. The group completed their mission Friday to build 200 homes in a week in the Freedom Park slum, back left, suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. (AP Photo/Karin Schermbrucker) Picture 1 of 5

FREEDOM PARK, South Africa - For the first time, Mona Miller has a real roof, solid walls and glass windows. Lights come on at the flick of a switch, water flows from the tap and she has the dignity of a toilet.

Miller will move into her first proper home this weekend thanks to a building blitz by nearly 1,400 Irish volunteers, who completed a mission Friday to construct 200 houses in a week in the depressing, dusty - and hopelessly misnamed - Freedom Park slum.

"It's a solid home, not something that people can drive though," said Miller, shuddering at the memory of the drunk driver who rammed into her shack four years ago, injuring her two young children in this sprawling Cape Town slum.

"I look forward to hearing the rain on the roof because I will no longer have to get up and put buckets underneath the holes. I'm going to close my doors and sleep for a week," she said with a grin, gazing proudly as builders put finishing touches on the mustard-colored house.Read more;

Irish Build 200 Homes for S. Africa Poor