Davina McCall is online guide for The Sunday Times Christmas Appeal web project

Save the Children has created an innovative, interactive web project, where you can explore the community of Kingsville in Liberia.

Saturday 29 November 2008

For the first time, people donating to The Sunday Times Christmas Appeal will be able to interact directly with the community of Kingsville. They'll see films of Davina McCall's recent trip there, take a tour around the run-down clinic and school, and look inside a family home. There are also slideshows, 360 degree panoramic images, a discussion forum, and profile pages.

The website www.savethechildren.org.uk/kingsville will run alongside articles in The Sunday Times magazine from this Sunday, 30 November. 

Every week until Christmas, new films featuring Davina, photographs, slideshows and stories will be uploaded.

In Liberia, one in nine children won't make it to their fifth birthday. Most of these deaths are caused by preventable diseases such as measles, malaria and diarrhoea. For the children that survive in Kingsville, many are unable to go to school. For those that do, a ramshackle building with classes of over one hundred pupils with no books, pens or equipment will be their only experience of learning.

Adrian Lovett, Director of Campaigns and Communications at Save the Children said: "This new website is literally a lifeline. The web has changed the way we live - and now we can use it to change the lives of the world's poorest children. Two Liberian children under five are still dying every hour. By registering support or making a contribution through the website, people really can help change that reality. 

"At Save the Children, we wanted to create a new kind of Christmas Appeal with The Sunday Times. As well as following the stories from Kingsville in newspaper and magazine, families in Britain will be able to go online and connect directly with that remote, rural community, do something to change the lives of people living there and then revisit the website over the next year to see the difference they have made. "

The Kingsville project follows on from the success of Save the Children's "This is Kroo Bay" website which launched earlier this year and focused on a slum community living on a rubbish dump just outside Freetown, in nearby Sierra Leone. Donations raised through the website enabled Save the Children to refurbish the health clinic, train health workers, provide vital medicines and help prevent the river flooding into people's houses.

Find out more

Visit www.savethechildren.org.uk/kingsville from 30 November for more information.

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