NUNEATON: Russell Harris – from Mira Showers’ customer services – recently swapped his headset and desktop for a chainsaw and a shovel as part of team building an adventure playground for children in Gambia.

Mr Harris’ work was in the village of Sambel Kunda where he was also involved in planning a water tower, and re-plumbing some very leaky washroom and toilet facilities.

The village projects were all made possible by charity Stella’s School Scheme. Educating the children is vital in the fight against poverty, and wider activities serve in uniting the community – with recent examples being solar power installation, a school garden, child sponsorship scheme and a recently-built kitchen ensuring the children get at least one ‘decent’ meal a day.

Mr Harris worked on the playground build, from site clearance to completion. As Russell comments, “After a sweltering week, we had done it! We’d come up with two tyre swings, three climbing ropes, four trapeze rings, stepping logs, crocodile balance beams, a swinging log and a fantastic Burma rope bridge.

"After all that sweat, a broken finger for a local, a dodgy generator, 56 very deep holes, 25 3.5m poles, 25 litres of creosote and 12m of threaded bar: sorting out the plumbing was a doddle! All credit to the villagers and other volunteers; plus thanks to Mira for a chunk of cash towards getting the project realised.”