Meet the children

It’s easy to forget that behind the work Savannah does, there are individual children - all with their own story to tell. Here are just three of the children who live in the village of Bagri, where our first school is based…

Mperismer

When we first met Mperismer (pronounced merry-samer) it was estimated that he was 10, although nobody knows his exact age. He is simply the fourth of six children.

Before Bagri school was built, he spent most of his day helping his parents on their land. He sleeps out in the open, without a room to call his own.

His favourite food is the soup produced from the leaves of the local baobab tree.

On three occasions he has left his village to visit nearby Lawra. Once when very small his mother took him on a long journey to the area around Larabanga (about 150 miles away). Other than this, all he has known is life in his village.

His dreams are to follow his father’s footsteps into subsistence farming and perhaps, he told us, to go to school.

Fati

Fati is 9. She is the daughter of Muslim parents. When we first held meetings in her village to explore the possibility of a school during 2005 her father said simply “we are glad the Christians have come to our village because now we will have a school.”

A short video about Fati’s life:

Daafah

Daafah enjoyed attending the new school in his village. He was bright and attentive but had a problem that none of the other children face. His world is silent. He is entirely deaf.

Daafah’s father died when he was very young, and his family have no means to pay for additional help. The Trust is providing a small scholarship to allow Daafah to attend a specialist school in the regional capital, Wa. This is some 80 miles away.

An important aim of the Trust from the start has been that every child in these villages should enjoy an education, irrespective of their background, no matter how poor and despite any disabilities.