Mayo father and daughter duo head to Cape Town to build a school

Blocklayer James Lally from Aughagower, Westport, has returned to Cape Town for the eleventh time, along with his 19-year-old daughter, Orla, to help build a school in the Khayelitsha township.

“I went out last November,” James told The Mayo News. “I brought my daughter Orla with me, as it was supposed to be my last trip, but she decided ‘No, no we are going again’. She loved it.

"She saw the other side of the coin. She loved the work and meeting other people and cultures, and so we are on our way out again on Saturday.”

James first travelled to Cape Town in 2008 to build houses with the Niall Mellon Township Challenge. Since 2013, Mellon Educate has set about improving access to better standards of education in African townships. To date, the charity has built or renovated 32 schools, providing over 50,000 young children with a better chance in life.

James and Orla have now travelled to the Khayelitsha township, which has a population of 1.5 million people, just a quarter of which live in permanent housing.

James and Orla are among 360 other volunteers who will work for just over a week to construct a new school for the township, with Orla labouring for James on the site.