AN Army student from Darlington has just returned from a trip to Africa where she helped villagers to build a life-saving water well.

Naomi Robinson, 21, went to the aid of the Nabakoss villagers in east Uganda after she and her friends at the Tayforth University Army Officer Training Corps in Dundee decided that they should spend their summer break doing something worthwhile.

A well project for the village had been started by a charity in the early 1990s but was abandoned before it was completed and the wells quickly fell into disrepair. Children have fallen down the open holes.

"The locals were drinking water from the wells that was a serious hazard to their health," said Naomi, who went to Dundee University after doing A-levels at Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form college.