Volunteers from around Peterborough to help build schools in South Africa for charity patroned by Nelson Mandela

A team of seven volunteers from around our region have signed up to help a charity build new schools for underprivileged children in a South African township.

The volunteers: two from Stamford, two from Somersham, two from Warboys and one from St Ives, will be led by Sean Dennis, a seasoned charity building veteran with more than 10 years’ experience.

Sean believes that the volunteers’ motivation will more than make up for the fact “a good 40-50 per cent of them will not have stepped foot on a building site before.”

“It’s a real good example of the power of a collective when you put people with similar values together with a common goal,” he says.

Sean and his team will be toiling in the name of Mellon Educate, an Irish-based African development charity founded by developer and philanthropist Niall Mellon in 2002.

Niall was a good friend of the late South African President, Nelson Mandela.

Indeed, the charity’s motto, ‘Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world’ comes from one of much-admired statesman’s inspiring insights.

After raising the £4,500 each team member needs to cover their flights, accommodation, security, meals, and building materials for the week, the volunteers will arrive in the Western Cape township of Lwandle in November as part of a ‘building blitz’

This essentially sees a total of around 350 volunteers split into two teams and then being deployed to two separate building sites which have already been worked on throughout the year.

Sean explained that the blitz would result in 6-8 classrooms being constructed on each building site, as well as a new covered lunch area, kitchen and playground.

“What can actually be done in a week is phenomenal,” he said.

‘A special kind of person’

Sean first got involved with Mellon Educate in 2007 following the unexpected death of his best man, who had already arranged to take part in a charity build

“He was signed up to go,” Sean remembers, “So I went as a sort of memorial to him.”

The experience had an immediate and lasting impact on the 50-year-old.

“It intensifies humility in any human being to go from our society to a township where they don’t have running water; where children have nothing and communities have nothing,” he observes.

“You come back from seeing that and kind of go ‘it’s very difficult to complain about life’,” he says, adding: “it really grounds you.”

“I fell in love with the work the charity was doing,” he notes, “and have been involved ever since.”

The Warboys man has nothing but admiration for the volunteers who have signed up to join him.

“It’s a special kind of person who gives up a week of their time to go and do it,” he says.

Sean has just put together a joint JustGiving page to try and help each of his team members hit their individual fundraising goal of £4,500.

“Any support we can get from anyone will be greatly appreciated,“ he says.

Anybody who would like to help Sean and his team reach their fundraising target can do so by making a donation at www.justgiving.com/page/sean-dennis-1713186511066