Dear Supporters,

It has been our privilege over the years to keep in regular contact and provide updates on the work of Savannah Education Trust. We are thankful, as the work has expanded, to be able to report exciting developments: new schools, more pupils being supported and fed every day, and the wonderful impact of a Christian education in the remote communities of northern Ghana.

But we have now come to a more difficult moment in Savannah’s history. Like the rest of the world, Ghana has been affected by Covid-19. We are thankful that the virus, so far, has not made significant inroads into the Ghanaian population. Nonetheless, the government has felt it prudent to take cautionary measures, including the closure of all schools. This obviously includes all of the schools across the eight villages in which we work.

For our pupils that is particularly challenging. Their families have come to very much appreciate both the education and the meal being provided each day. We are just approaching what is known locally as the ‘hungry’ season – the months leading up to harvest in early autumn. The effect of a short-term lockdown has also meant that food prices have risen, at least temporarily.

In response to the increasing living costs, we have increased our allowance to all staff. There is much fear in the local area, and very little provision for combatting the virus. We have, therefore, also made a contribution toward supporting local health workers with some basic facilities including specialist buckets (holding water to allow for hand-washing), locally produced face masks, liquid soap and hand sanitisers. Although this, of course, has meant an increased cost at a difficult moment we felt as trustees that it was the right thing to do. We feel a great responsibility and affection for both our staff team and the communities that they serve.

On a more positive note, we are able to continue with much of our existing building work, including the long planned senior school in the village of Korh and our new Teacher and Learning Resource Centre.

We need your support and prayers more than ever in these uncertain days.

With very best wishes, and on behalf to the trustees,

Paul Ramsbottom

Dear Supporters,

Some days in life linger long in the memory. For us that includes 18 October 2006. This was the date when our first school was opened in the village of Bagri, northern Ghana.

Among the large crowds gathered for the occasion was a four year old boy called Meshach. He only has the haziest of memories of that day. His parents, desperately poor farmers, grew just enough corn, millet and ground nuts to feed themselves and their four children. Without the opening of a school, that little boy faced an extremely difficult future.

You may remember Meshach from our Christmas letter written three years ago. That year, a decade after the grand opening, he had taken the national examinations (the equivalent of British GCSES). He had received the highest grade. Noticing his ability, one of the teachers at our school in Bagri helped him with extra tuition and mentoring. In the evenings, by the light of an old torch provided by the charity, he read back over the notes made at school. We described in our letter how we were funding him to continue his studies – and added that Meshach had the ambition to become a doctor when he finished school. “That”, we noted, “is a challenge – but it is no longer an impossibility.”

This year, Meshach completed his secondary studies and we recently heard that he has just been accepted to study medicine.  It fills us with great emotion to think that the little boy who aged four had literally nothing will now study to be a doctor. We are hoping that Savannah will be able to help fund this too, and that he will return after training to this remote area to help his own people. Meshach is not just a clever pupil, he is also a useful member of the Baptist church in Bagri – and teaches in the Sunday School.

We now have nearly 2,000 children attending our Christian schools and, during this year, pupils started attending the newest school in the village of Baapari – the eighth village in which we are working. Not all of those children will achieve the wonderful success of Meshach. Nor was that our aim. We have always sought to provide a decent quality education that, alongside a Christian influence, will help improve the quality of live in challenging circumstances.

Child by child, and family by family, these village communities are being transformed. At this time of the year, our thoughts perhaps naturally turn to children in our own country, and all of the presents and luxuries that they enjoy. The contrast with children in northern Ghana – particularly those without a school – is sobering.

It has been the busiest of years for the charity, and also a year when there has been pressure on our finances. As we look to the future, we think about those children who still do not enjoy the benefits of one of our Christian schools and have the desire to start work in more villages. We are also planning, if the Lord will in the immediate future, to build a new Training and Resource Centre (with associated office) to provide practical support to our existing schools and the surrounding area. None of this could be contemplated without our kind and generous supporters.

Meshach is not able to thank you personally. We count it our greatest privilege to do so on his behalf. We are thankful and excited by all that has happened but, as our responsibilities and ongoing costs increase, it is without doubt daunting too. We are ever more dependent on your prayers and your generosity.

We join with all of our friends in Ghana in wishing you a very happy Christmas and God’s blessing during 2020.

On behalf of the trustees,

Paul Ramsbottom

Forthcoming meetings:

Saturday 25 January 2020 at 2.30pm at Wivelsfield Village Hall, Eastern Road, Wivelsfield Green, East Sussex RH17 7QH

Saturday 14 March 2020 at 2.30 pm at Toddington Village Hall, Leighton Road, Toddington, Dunstable LU5 6AN

Dear Supporters

Between the villages of Tungan and Zagkpee in northern Ghana is an area of high ground. If you had walked across the savannah this time last year you would have encountered a peaceful scene: a view across the countryside and the scattered, simple homes below. Yet that tranquil December scene would, in many ways, have been misleading. The two villages were facing the same severe poverty that they had encountered across generations. Neither enjoyed the benefits of a school. Children like Nuo Ziem (aged 9) had no prospect of education and, without opportunities, spent their time helping with basic farming and other chores. Many of her fellow children in the village died before they reached adulthood.

Continue reading “Newsletter, December 2017” →