HMA intern Katie here, bringing you more exciting bits from Scott’s recent Public Relations Global Network Conference trip to South Africa. As many of you know, Scott just returned to us at HMA after his two-week trip. What you may not know is that not all the trip was spent in business meetings, sight-seeing and on safaris. One day Scott and the other PRGN members joined a team of volunteers from the Niall Mellon Township Trust to improve the lives and living conditions in the Townships of South Africa. Touched by the experience, Scott approached me with the opportunity to learn more about the organization and share the good things they are doing to help impoverished families in Cape Town, South Africa.

In 2002, The Niall Mellon Township Trust was created after Niall Mellon witnessed the impoverished lives of those living in South Africa. Since then, the organization has grown immensely thanks to strong partnerships with the African government and local communities and volunteering by individuals and groups like PRGN.

Their Building Blitz initiative has helped improve the living conditions of 80,000 people in the Townships of South Africa. They continue to improve the health, education and living conditions of families through training, sustainability and improvements made to sanitation. Through the various initiatives and programs The Niall Mellon Township Trust empowers the poor within these communities to have more control over their own development as well as that of their community.

Thanks to organizations like the Niall Mellon Township Trust, the residents living in poverty and who lack access to basic social facilities are given the opportunity to live a better life.

Check out what the Niall Mellon Township Trust is doing in Cape Town, South Africa.

You may also be interested to learn what a couple others from the PRGN who volunteered had to say about their experience: Sandy Lish, Castle Group, Boston and Ramonna Robinson, GroundFloor Media, Denver.