Thanks to all of you who came down to see us in Manchester last week, if you missed it take a look at the pictures on our gallery page or the album on flickr.

If you're in central Manchester today you might notice that something a bit different has popped up overnight all over the city.

We're spreading the word about how you can Make Manchester Proud and we've built a shanty town outside the Town Hall in Albert Square and single shacks in Piccadilly Gardens, Exchange Square, Market Street, Cathedral Street and St Anne's Square.

Our volunteers will be out on the streets to encourage people to take a look inside the shacks and see for themselves the living conditions of people in the Towships of South Africa. They'll also be chatting to passers by and giving out plenty of information to people who might want to Make Manchester Proud.

On the 19th and 20th of August the Make Manchester Proud Campaign will be bringing the townships of South Africa to the streets of Manchester.

Commuters, workers and visitors will be able to experience first hand the living conditions of the 4.3 million South Africans who continue to live in township shacks more than 15 years after the end of apartheid.

We need your help to make this event a success.

We need to get volunteers onto the streets of Manchester to hand out leaflets and to talk to people about the campaign.

If you can spare an hour or two or even a whole day that would be brilliant: you'll need to come along to one of two briefing meetings to be held at the Irish World Heritage Centre 7pm on the 17th and 18th August.

You can sign up for these on the Make Manchester Proud Facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/editevent.php?picture&eid=110787327077&created&new&m=1#/group.php?gid=49576424398

Anyone interested in making the trip to South Africa in April 2010 or who would like to help with the Make Manchester Proud Campagin is invited to attend monthly open meetings at Manchester Town hall.

We'll let you know the details of the meetings as they approach and we'll be talking about what a Building Blitz is really like, sharing tips on fundraising and just generally meeting everyone who has expressed an interest in helping to Make Manchester Proud.

If you'd like to come to the next meeting drop us a note via the contact page and we'll send over all the details, or you can find the events on the group facebook page.

We hope to meet you soon

The Niall Mellon Township Trust is searching for 70 Volunteers from Manchester to join 1,000 skilled and unskilled Irish men and women on the charity’s one week Building Blitz to South Africa in 2010.

Established in 2002, the Niall Mellon Township Trust provides quality social housing for the impoverished communities in the townships of South Africa and since its inception we have built 11,000 homes in total, 5,000 of which were built in 2008.

We are currently building in 23 townships, 13 in the Western Cape and 10 in Gauteng and although we have only been in existence for seven years we are currently the largest charity provider of quality social homes in South Africa.

We need 70 volunteers to raise £4,000 to join us on this amazing journey in 2010. This will be a rewarding life changing experience with the opportunity to meet new people, learn new skills and see how the work you do directly makes a difference to hundreds of people.

Those people will need help from corporates, friends and families to raise money - so don't be afraid to get involved!