Safe play in Africa is Norwich student's mission
 2009: Norwich Christian student Deborah Smith spent two weeks this summer helping to build a colourful new playground at a special needs school in Uganda.
Deborah, from Holy Trinity church in Norwich, spent the fortnight at a school in Jinja with a new charity called East African Playgrounds, whose vision is to give communities a playground and create a safe place for children to play.
"Charity founders Tom and Carla see play as vital in children's development, physically and socially," said Deborah.
"The kids out there were fantastic. They were so excited by us being there and spending our time on building the colourful and exciting playground for them.
"The school we worked at also catered for special needs children, which is rare, and we incorporated play equipment that would benefit and stimulate them as well, which was exciting. To give these precious children something fun and purely for them was a privilege and I loved living in the school and making hopefully lifelong friendships with the people we met."
The long-term plan for the future of the charity is to set up the play equipment so it generates electricity and pumps water when it is being used.
www.eastafricanplaygrounds.org
Pictured above, Deborah Smith gets some help building the playground in Jinja.
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