Over the past decade Barney O’Loughlin from Belleek has travelled to South Africa 11 times to work with the Niall Mellon Township Trust, using his skills as a carpenter to help build houses and school buildings in some of the most impoverished areas around Cape Town.

“It was something that I always wanted to get involved with, probably going back to growing up seeing the terrible scenes of famine in Africa on the news far too often,” said Barney, when asked what inspired him to do this work.

Barney (50) embarked on his first trip as a volunteer shortly after he turned 40. He and his supportive wife Irene had used their joint 40th birthday party as a fundraiser for the charity.

“We wathced Niall Mellon being interviewed on the Late Late Show and in the audience were a good number of volunteers from the Niall Mellon Township Trust who had been going out to South Africa to build houses for the poorest families in the townships,” said Barney.

He continued: “I thought that I should go and do that, using my skills as a carpenter to roof the houses. This tied in so well with the 40th as people were so generous with their money. We raised £8,000 between that and some other donations.”

“My family has done so much to encourage and support me on all my trips,” added Barney.

During his first five years of going out to South Africa with the Niall Mellon Township Trust, Barney helped build houses for families in most need. Barney explained: “The South African government was not putting money into this at the time but were embarrassed into doing so. They now pay for the full price of the houses so because we no longer need to do the fundraising for that, the charity decided to switch to building and refurbishing schools.”

He continued: “Everyone gets stuck in with anything from painting, to carrying blocks or roof tiles, wheeling cement to helping to plaster. We build classrooms, toilets and kitchen blocks.”

At all the schools Barney has worked, his job has been to construct playgrounds. He believes this is very important as they are creating a space where the children can have fun away from the poor conditions in their townships. He added: “When you see the kids playing in these at the end of the week, it makes you want to go back the following year.”

Sharing a story from one of his recent trips, Barney said: “A nice touch for me was on the last day at lunch time, as l was resting from the heat in the shade, a South African policeman and policewoman came onto the site and came up to shake my hand.” He continued: “They told me they were so happy to see the Irish builders come back to build the school as all the work we had done before had made so much difference to them as the crime rate had dropped a lot in the areas we had built the houses as these give the people a better quality of life.”

Although every trip has been meaningful to Barney, he noted that his biggest highlights were when his daughters Saoirse and Nisha joined him. He said: “They both got so much out of the experiences, doing their bit to help kids who have so little in life but always come in to the schools with smiles on their faces and a strong willingness to learn and improve themselves.”

Barney added: “As a parent, it is very special to make these trips with your own kids and the whole experience can change your own outlook on what is important in life. You do like to think that you have made some difference to these folks. It’s such a great experience that I would recommend to anyone and when you see our own young people out there giving everything they can to try and improve the lives of these South African kids, it does you proud to see what they can achieve and you know that these experiences will stay with them forever.”

Hoping to volunteer with the charity for a 12th time this November, Barney explained that his main fundraiser is a night walk up Cuilcagh Mountain around the longest day of the year. He said: “I get massive help from my friends in the North West Mountain Rescue team, in which I’m a volunteer. It’s help from friends and family like this that make it possible for me to make these trips to South Africa.”