Bishop Auckland firms Tree Appeal and Jigsaw plus Matta Products have joined forces to build their first Playground for Life, a multi-purpose play and learning facility for children, which will be shipped to the fishing village of Anomabo in Ghana.

The impressive wooden structure is designed by Jigsaw in the style of a fort, using sustainable timber, and made safe for kids by Matta Products.

Children from Darlington College Childcare Centre were on hand to give the fort a rigorous work-out, and also decorated it with pictures and stories for the benefit of children in Ghana. The play fort is now set to start its long journey south, forming a bond between the two sets of youngsters in the process.

Hand-in-hand with this humanitarian effort is a vital environmental conservation project. Tree Appeal will be planting fruit trees close to the village and developing irrigation systems to ensure their survival, while also preserving mature trees in the area.

Professor Bellamy said: "Trees provide around half the human population with energy for heating and cooking. By planting more trees we are doing our bit to stitch our world back into a more sustainable working order."

Tree Appeal first went global in Ghana in November, working in association with David Bellamy and partner organisation, Cracker, a fruit juice company that has made the commitment to plant 12,000 fruit trees in the West African nation. This Fruit Trees for Life project will provide a sustainable economic resource for the villagers while putting healthy fruit back into the diets of 60,000 people. 500 of these fruit trees will be planted in and around Anomabo.

Ken Whitley, Managing Director of Tree Appeal, said: "It is Tree Appeal’s mission to make the world a greener place. This project shows how, through partnership working, we can make a real difference to people in Africa whose lives are far tougher than we can ever realise."

Tree Appeal has linked up with the And Albert Foundation, a charity working to develop ethical trade, to identify the village of Anomabo and its particular needs. The planned presentation of these gifts to the villagers also falls on the day that the world celebrates 200 years since the abolition of the slave trade, March 25 2007. The Atlantic coast of Ghana is inextricably linked with slavery and this project will be a positive way of marking this anniversary.

The Playground for Life will be shipped to Ghana at the end of February where it will become the major playground and learning centre in the village of Anomabo, near the city of Cape Coast. The new playground will be re-assembled in front of Fort William in a square that is being created to commemorate Africa’s Heroes. March 2007 also sees the 50th anniversary of Ghana's independence.

The structure will act as part of the stage for the celebrations on March 25th before being moved to its final home beside the fort.



Fort William is an old slave fort where many hundreds of thousands of slaves were shipped from Ghana to Europe and the Americas from the 17th century until the early part of the 19th century. In 1956 the building was dedicated as a youth centre by HM Queen Elizabeth II in the memory of her father, King George VI. Sadly the buildings fell into disrepair and for some time were used as a prison. The fort has remained unused for the last five years.

The And Albert Foundation now hopes to rededicate this fort back to Africa’s youth during the festival of freedom and life, and have the blessing of the paramount chief of the area. The building of the playground will look to the youth and future in the face of one of the great sorrows of the past.

The area around the playground is also set to be a future nature reserve which will house trees and shrubs from the area and will demonstrate the natural heritage of Ghana. 2000 native trees will be planted here by Tree Appeal. The reserve will be administered by the teachers from all the schools in the area.