Emily Postle, who is now in her first year studying Criminal and Corporate Investigation at the University of Northampton, plans to spend two weeks in the town of Jinja next summer for the Uganda Volunteer Project of the East African Playgrounds charity.
 
Last October, the charity’s volunteer co-ordinator, Rachel Finch, addressed one of the student’s lectures and expressed her passion for working for East African Playgrounds for the past five years.
 
“In just five minutes she had me wanting to sign up straight away,” said Ms Postle, who was accepted on the project a week later.
 
Play is incredibly important for children’s learning and well-being and for healthy brain development, she explained. The United Nations includes the right to play in its Convention on the Rights of the Child.
 
Play has been proven to benefit communication, concentration, fine motor skills, self-control and other cognitive abilities, as well as significantly raising a person’s IQ.
 
However, in many communities across East Africa children spend their time out of school looking for work or helping at home to provide for their families, rather than the essential time to play.
 
“As a member of Volunteer Uganda 2018, I want to make play possible in local community primary schools so these children can achieve the best they can and enjoy every single second of education,” said Ms Postle.
 
“While in Uganda I will be part of a team who face transforming an empty field into an incredible playground.
 
“My tasks will be to dig foundation holes, mix piles of cement by hand, bolt tyres together and decorate the playground to the needs of the children.
 
“Alongside this we will run afternoon sessions with the children to complete fun activities designed to encourage creativity as well as problem-solving skills.”
 
To make all this possible, Ms Postle needs to raise £1,800 for the charity for flights, transfers, food, etc., which she hopes to get through donations and various fundraising events.
 
She has now set up a GoFundMe page and has overcome her hatred of running by completing five Parkruns before Christmas.
 
After running at 9 am every Saturday, even when it was -2°C, she finished the last of these runs at Blickling on 23 December.
 
She is now looking to organise a quiz, as well as street collections in both Norfolk and London.
 
All updates and details of her Uganda trip can be found on the “Get Emily to Uganda – Updates and more… “ Facebook page.
 
As well as helping her get to Uganda, the following are examples of what your donations can help with:

• £10 builds a toy giraffe for the children of a community to play with.
• £15 builds a motorbike out of tyres, allowing children to engage their creativity in role-play scenarios.
• £20 funds safety equipment for a disadvantaged young adult, helping them to be safe as they start their meaningful employment with East African Playgrounds.
• £50 builds a table with space for board games such as checkers or snakes and ladders.
• £100 could fund a one-month educational play programme.
• £250 could give the children the best climbing frame they (or you) have ever seen.