Olympian Barnes launches biggest fight yet in Lisburn

Since 1976 Habitat has helped 3 million people have a safe, healthy home but with 1.6 billion people worldwide still living in inadequate housing, the fight is far from over.

Barnes donned his boxing gloves on Saturday to launch Habitat’s latest fundraising challenge ‘Shack Attack’.

A first for Northern Ireland, Shack Attack challenges teams of 4 people to design and build their own make-shift shelter from scrap or donated materials and then sleep in it overnight!

The event is taking place in Wallace Park, Lisburn, on June 22-23.

Lisburn City Council have lent their support with the event kicking off their Summer programme for the park.

Councillor Thomas Beckett, Chairman of Lisburn Leisure Services Committee joined Paddy at the launch of the event.

Speaking from the launch, Paddy wanted to encourage people to join in the attack on poverty housing by getting sponsored to take part in Shack Attack and experience just for a moment the hardship faced by millions living in poverty housing every day.

“I’ve been involved with Habitat before so when they asked me to get behind this new event I was made-up. Shack Attack is a real ‘get stuck in’ challenge. I think there might be a few tough guys out there like myself who find building and sleeping in a shack for a few hours tougher than they think.”

Karen Dunlop from Habitat said: “Every minute 20 people die from conditions related to substandard housing so the fight against poverty housing is far from over. Shack Attack is a way for Habitat to give people a sense of what it’s really like for millions of families trapped in poverty.

“As well as building their shack teams will be challenged to raise £1235, the average cost of a Habitat home in the developing world.

“So it’s not just about raising awareness of the issue, it will also raise essential funds – and ultimately it will be a lot of fun too!”

The event is open to everyone including individuals, businesses, churches and the wider community. Full details are available at www.habitatni.co.uk or by calling Karen Dunlop on 028 92 635 639.