British actor Nathaniel Parker is helping to promote a new provocative online video campaign.

The clips on Facebook and YouTube are a call-to-action for international volunteer-based building charity Mellon Educate’s pioneering seven day school-building programme.

Parker, who played Agravaine in BBC One’s Merlin, uses grains of sand in the ad to demonsrate how many hours of our life we waste when you can volunteer to make a worthwhile difference with just seven days of your time.

Watch the video…

The charity takes volunteers to Africa each year to provide educational assistance, including the building of schools, for some of the continent’s most impoverished children.

So far over 22,000 volunteers have taken part in the programme and they have built an astonishing 25,000 homes and several schools with over 150,000 of the world’s poorest people having their lives changed!

Niall Mellon, founder of Mellon Educate, commented: “I hope this video will make people sit up and reflect on how much time we actually waste in our lives and  how a tiny little piece of planned  time  can make you a hero forever in the hearts of some of the worlds poorest children.

He added: “Our amazing 1 week building blitz in November each year gives even the busiest executive a chance to make a real difference in the lives of some of the worlds poorest people. It’s hard work, but also great fun being part of a group of a few hundred similar people producing top quality classrooms  for Township kids in only seven days, and then everyone return back to the UK  with the comfort of knowing that for at least ONE week of their lives not a single minute was wasted!”

> Find out more about how you can help on the charity’s website.

This post is sponsored by Mellon Educate.