Welcome to our Summer 2026 Newsletter

Savannah Education Trust is a charity providing an education for some of the poorest children in West Africa. We now have ten Christian schools in remote villages in northern Ghana: Bagri, Gberi, Korh, Pavuu, Mettoh, Tungan-Zagkpee, Boo, Baapari, Danko-Buree and Lyssah. The charity also ensures every schoolchild receives a meal each day and has a programme of supporting teachers in this remote and poor area. 

Lawra Mourns

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Naa Puowelle Karbo III, Paramount Chief of Lawra Traditional Area, former President of the Upper West Regional House of Chiefs and past Vice President of the National House of Chiefs. He died on 21 April after a short illness. He was 79 years old.

Our key partners in the work of bringing education to these remote communities are the church, the local community, the government – and the tribal leadership. The Paramount Chief was a wonderful friend of Savannah over many years. He was unremitting in his desire to bring education to the most remote and disadvantaged communities in his territory. He officially opened all but one of the “blue schools” – and the ceremonies were always marked by the Chief giving a powerful speech in English and Dagaare, accompanied by all the traditional pomp and ceremony of his office.

During the last audience of trustees with Naa Puowelle at Lawra Palace in March 2025 he stated that ‘the Savannah Education Trust coming here is the most important, developmentally significant event to have taken place in my Paramountcy. The impact on our society has been great. The approach by Savannah is so unique, relying on local participation and always stressing that the schools are built by the people for their children.’

Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Lawra at this time of sadness and change. Our supporters will be interested to learn that the Regent, whose role is central to the transition of tribal leadership, is our former Country Manager, Pastor Charles Karbo.

Technical High School

Over the past few newsletters, we have mentioned the exciting possibility of a Technical High School for the Lawra district. This is now nearly a reality. A Technical High School offers vocational training to young people once they have completed their exams at age 14 (equivalent to a GCSE qualification in the UK). Without a Technical High School, options for further education are limited as mainstream schools focus on academic pathways whereas many of the children want to learn a practical trade which will enable them to start a small business to help their families. Without vocational skills, it is very challenging to secure stable employment or start a new enterprise. Many young people will either return to subsistence farming or migrate south to the cities in a desperate search for work.

The Savannah team on the ground have become increasingly convinced of the need to provide vocational education to support these young people. After much prayer (seeking for both wisdom and the financial means to start the work), we were very thankful to receive initial funding to begin the Technical High School project. During a trustees’ visit in May 2026, it was a great thrill to be able to visit the site and see the new school rising from the grassland on the edge of the market town of Lawra. 

Initially, we plan to start small – with textiles and dressmaking and masonry classes. The workshops and classrooms needed to teach these subjects are nearing completion, along with an administration block, water tower and electrical connection to the national grid. As with our existing schools, we plan to provide a meal for each student each day.

Because a Technical High School serves a much wider area than a local village school, it needs dormitory facilities in the second phase of the project. This will be a new venture for Savannah and comes with additional administrative and safeguarding complexities. We value your prayers for wisdom.

Close partnership with the Ghana Education Service is vital to our work.  The Savannah team in Ghana are currently in consultation with the national government. There is an enthusiasm about the Technical High School, a recognition that the area desperately needs this type of facility and a willingness to take responsibility for running it, once the building is completed. This is another matter in which we ask you to join us in prayer – we seek wisdom as we communicate with government officials.

Savannah-Supported Teachers 

One of the greatest challenges facing Savannah – and education systems worldwide – is the teacher recruitment crisis. Globally, an estimated 44 million new teachers will be needed by 2030, with around one-third (15 million) required in Sub-Saharan Africa alone to meet the demands of rapidly growing student populations.

Savannah’s schools have brought education within the reach of thousands of children who would have otherwise never had the opportunity to go to school. But a school is only as effective as its teachers and, in the rural areas in which we work, attracting and retaining high-quality teachers is a particularly significant challenge. There are several reasons for this. Firstly, high adult illiteracy rates mean there is a limited pool of local people who can train as teachers.

 Secondly, those who do gain teaching qualifications often move to more developed areas in the south, where opportunities and living conditions are better. Thirdly, the communities we serve are extremely remote, often lacking electricity, basic amenities and convenient transport links.

Savannah is addressing this challenge through a range of initiatives. Elsewhere in this newsletter we cover the provision of teacher accommodation in order to make working in our rural schools more attractive. Our teacher scholarship programme, running for over 20 years, funds training for teachers on the condition that they return to work in our schools. Today, around a quarter of our teachers have come through this programme. In addition, the new Savannah Teacher Training Centre in Lawra is being used to focus on improving the quality of teaching, and acting as an aid to teacher recruitment and retention.  

Despite these efforts, teacher shortages remain a significant issue. To address this, Savannah has recently adopted a new approach: directly employing teachers. Previously, all teachers were recruited and paid by the Ghana Education Service. However, to ensure our schools are adequately staffed, we now also employ some teachers ourselves.

Currently, Savannah directly employs 38 teachers – around one-third of our total teaching workforce – at a cost of approximately £29,000 per year. This equates to around £760 per teacher annually. That is excellent value for Savannah, although tough for the teachers to live on – and also a new and ongoing financial commitment for the organisation at a time when funds are tight.

To fill these roles, we are drawing on a previously untapped pool of talent. In the past, many teachers in northern Ghana trained through distance learning programmes, which were particularly suited to those in remote areas. However, when the government withdrew recognition of these programmes, many qualified and experienced teachers were left without official posts. Savannah is now engaging these teachers to help meet the immediate needs of our schools.

In the long term, we hope that our existing programmes will reduce the need for direct employment. However, at present, these teachers are playing a vital role in ensuring that children in Savannah schools receive a quality education. Their contribution is making a meaningful difference, and this is only possible thanks to the continued generosity of our supporters.

Teachers’ Accommodation

Savannah’s schools have brought education within the reach of thousands of children who would have otherwise never had the opportunity to go to school. In the rural areas in which we work, attracting and retaining high-quality teachers is a significant challenge. One of the key ways in which we are trying to address this is through the provision of teachers’ accommodation at our most remote schools.

Thomas is a teacher at one of our Savannah schools. A local church member, he was delighted to receive support from Savannah to allow him to train as a teacher. He sees his role as a privilege and a calling – and teaches in one of our most remote schools. But it is difficult for him to get to school, especially when the weather is bad.

Africa more widely is facing a teacher recruitment crisis, and Savannah’s rural schools face the impact of this most keenly. The challenge is exacerbated by the fact that teachers in Ghana now have a large amount of choice over which regions they are sent to, and they are much more likely to choose developed, urban areas with easy access to amenities rather than rural villages with a lower standard of living, like those served by Savannah. Those, like Thomas, who do come to Savannah’s schools have to choose between poor quality housing in local villages, often without running water or electricity, or a long commute from Lawra, spending most of their salary on fuel. He is thrilled that we have been able to build good quality accommodation with adequate lighting and running water. For teachers like Thomas, it means we can overcome these challenges and incentivise teachers to come to our schools – while also helping to retain those who are already working there.

The impact of teachers’ accommodation was strikingly illustrated during our recent trustees visit, which took place at the beginning of the rainy season. One morning we set off to visit schools in the midst of a downpour, which lasted all morning. Even the Savannah team’s rugged pick-up trucks were sliding as the tracks turned to mud, never mind the motorbikes used by teachers travelling from Lawra. We arrived at Korh Primary School to find a group of eager children who had walked through the rain to school, but only one teacher, Boateng. He explained that all the other teachers lived far away from the school, and had found the roads impassable. He, on the other hand, lived in the new teachers’ accommodation next to the school, and so the rain had proved no issue. He told us that he was from the Asante region, in the south of Ghana, but had chosen to come to Korh because of the accommodation provided by Savannah. When we moved to the Korh Junior High School, we were happy to see lessons underway: three of the JHS teachers, we discovered, lived in the teachers’ accommodation. Their close proximity to the school ensured that teaching and learning could continue, whatever the weather.

The provision of teachers’ accommodation, then, enables Savannah to attract teachers to our most remote schools, and removes obstacles to children receiving a high-quality education. Teachers can also easily provide extra-curricular activities for the pupils, enhancing attainment and ensuring that sports and cultural activities don’t have to take time away from learning. We now have teachers’ accommodation at three schools – Bagri, Boo, and Korh – with a fourth soon to be finished at Baapaari. As the Lord provides, we hope to be able to expand this to more of our rural schools, helping to ensure that every child can receive a high-quality education.

Gold Rush

Supporters will be familiar with the iconic images of the Black Volta River – a lifeline for local communities, where families collect water, wash clothes, and fish. In recent years, however, the river has become increasingly polluted, threatening the subsistence way of life that depends on it. Less visible is the source of this contamination: formal and informal gold mines upstream in Burkina Faso. The gold rush is also affecting our students. Drawn by the promise of quick riches, some of our older boys are heading north to seek their fortunes. Some return home with substantial earnings, creating a harmful incentive for others to trade long-term health and education for modest short-term financial gain.’ 

‘Hope in the Savannah’ webinar

We often wish we could take supporters to see our work in Ghana: the sheer joy of the “blue schools” and the many happy children. The next best thing is film and we are grateful for support from a professional film maker to produce a documentary about our work.

We are excited that the inaugural screening of the Savannah documentary ‘Hope in the Savannah’ will take place via webinar at 7pm on Saturday 31 October 2026. This will be followed by a brief update on the work and the latest news on the Technical High School. We are hopeful that this timing will allow our supporters in the USA and Canada to join us. Those living locally are invited to join us at Westoning Baptist Church, where light refreshments will be served after the webinar.  Log-in details will follow closer to the date.

Rising costs 

A strengthening cedi (reducing the relative value of foreign currencies) and high inflation rate continue to create a difficult financial situation, especially as our work expands.

We therefore remain extremely grateful for, and entirely dependent on, your kind support. As we plan for the future, we continue to find regular direct debit contributions especially helpful. As ever, please feel free to be in contact if you would like to talk to us about any element of Savannah’s work, or you need advice on the practicalities of supporting the work (whether that is amending an existing direct debit, or discussing a legacy).

Above all, we remain thankful to the Lord who continues to supply all our needs.

Dear Supporters

Arriving at the village of Bagri in northern Ghana is thrilling. It is a remote community. Almost all of the villagers are either farmers or fishermen, and their houses reach down to the banks of the Black Volta river on the far side of the village. A distinctive, vast, beautiful baobab tree marks the route into the little settlement.

But the thrill on arrival is not so much the beauty or the peace of this small village. Up on the hill is a blue school, dominating the approach to the settlement. This was our first Savannah school. Next year, it will be 20 years since this beacon of hope was opened. A whole generation in this village have now been educated.

On our last visit to the village we met the head boy and the head girl of Bagri School. The head girl, whose name is Precious, took us back to see her home and meet her parents. As we walked, she told us about how much the education meant to her and her family. Some days, she said, there is not even food in the house for anything to eat – and so the meal at school is vital for her and for the family. Once school days are finished, she wants to be a doctor: following in the footsteps of a pupil from this village, Meshach, who is now undertaking medical training.

When we arrived at her house, we had a shock. Not that the buildings were any different to the others in this area: mud walls, thatch roof, a sprawling complex of buildings – with a fire alight in the compound. But we immediately recognised it: we had been here many years before …

The house belongs to Thomas who, in the early days of Savannah, was the tailor who made the blue uniforms for the first ever pupils to attend Bagri school. But it brought back a painful memory too. All those years ago, we had been visiting a bereaved house. Their young daughter had recently died. Undiagnosed and untreated, she was part of a generation in which nearly one in four of the children died before their fifth birthday.

We were then told how Precious received her name. She was the first child born after that bitter bereavement. What a precious gift to her family! To us, she also seemed to symbolise the precious change that has occurred in this village since the Savannah Christian school has arrived.

There has been a change in the life of her father, Thomas, too. He is a farmer of his land – but also a fieldworker for Savannah Education Trust, overseeing the feeding programme and providing pastoral support to the schools. And, on Sundays, he preaches: taking the precious message of the gospel into other remote villages.

This is the time of year when it is traditional to give each other gifts. The community of Bagri is still very poor and children like Precious don’t receive Christmas presents. But, through your giving, she has received one of the greatest gifts of all: the gift of hope symbolised by that big blue school on the hill.

This has been both an exciting and difficult year for Savannah. A generous specific donation has enabled us to embark on the building of a vocational training school, something the team in Ghana have long identified as an important priority. Although this feels daunting, it is the sharp rise in ongoing costs, due to a combination of high inflation in Ghana and changing exchange rates, which poses a bigger and longer-term challenge. We are desperately keen not to have to cut back on our core work, like the meal which Precious and her classmates receive each day.

It means that we cherish your prayer and your generous support more than ever. We certainly need it. Precious is not able to thank you in person. It is a great privilege to do so on her behalf, and on behalf of each of our pupils and staff in Ghana. If you would like to meet Precious, you can follow this link to hear directly from her.

We do not know what 2026 holds, but we join with all of our friends in Ghana in wishing you a happy Christmas and God’s blessing for the new year.

On behalf of the trustees,
Paul Ramsbottom
paul@savannaheducationtrust.org

Welcome to our Summer 2025 Newsletter

Savannah Education Trust is a charity providing an education for some of the poorest children in West Africa. We now have ten Christian schools in remote villages in northern Ghana: Bagri, Gberi, Korh, Pavuu, Mettoh, Tungan-Zagkpee, Boo, Baapari, Danko-Buree and Lyssah. The charity also ensures every schoolchild receives a meal each day and has a programme of supporting teachers in this remote and poor area.

Technical High School

Note: The photos are of a technical high school we have visited in another part of Ghana

Over the past few newsletters, we have mentioned the possibility of a Technical High School for the area. 

The village schools built by Savannah are proving to be a great blessing: both to each child who attends them and also to the community as a whole. Our original aim – that every child in this area should have access to education – has almost been fulfilled through our network of schools across ten sites in this area of northern Ghana. Once their education is finished, some of our pupils return to their farms to a tough life of subsistence farming – yet they still enjoy the benefit for the rest of their lives that an education brings (including, for example, knowledge of improved farming techniques). Others continue with their education, attending secondary school and even continuing with their studies to gain a professional qualification. For example, we have previously featured Meshech in a newsletter: he was one of our very first pupils at Bagri School, who is now training to be a doctor.

But there are others, like Ama, a bright and determined 14-year-old girl from a small village near Lawra. Ama has completed Junior High School at one of our existing village schools. Her family, like many in the region, relies on subsistence farming, and life is a constant struggle against poverty and limited opportunities. Ama’s prayer, and her dream, is for a future where she can contribute to her family’s well-being.

Without a Technical High School, Ama’s options for further education are limited. Senior High Schools, such as the one in Lawra, focus on more academic pathways whereas she wants to learn a practical trade and start a small business to help her family. Without vocational skills, her chances of securing stable employment or starting her own enterprise are slim, making the cycle of poverty difficult to break. Many young people like Ama are forced to migrate to cities in search of work, often with few skills, leaving them vulnerable to exploitation.

Increasingly, the team on the ground has become convinced that there is a need to provide vocational education to support young people like Ama who want to learn a particular skill or trade. All are agreed that this remote, largely rural area needs a flourishing local economy – based on a diverse range of small but growing businesses – to raise it out of deep poverty. 

We have very kindly received initial funding for a Technical High School and have now purchased a plot of land on the edge of Lawra. In March, we travelled to Ghana to hold a series of planning meetings with the team to work through the logistics of the project. God willing, we hope to begin in relatively modest fashion with three subjects: dressmaking (textiles), electrical engineering, and welding. The cluster of school buildings required will therefore be more complex than our existing schools and will include simple workshops alongside the classrooms. As with our existing schools, we plan to provide a meal for each student each day. There is scope to expand according to demand.

We have close relations with the Ghana Education Service already, and in discussions they have expressed enthusiasm for the project and a willingness in principle to take on the running costs once it is operational.

We are grateful for your prayer and support as we embark on this exciting and challenging new venture.

Elijah

In previous newsletters, we have featured various important members of our school community: individual pupils, teachers, staff members and even the Paramount Chief of the area (a keen supporter of Savannah’s work).

Elijah is a different category. He is a pastor. We first met him on our very first visit to northern Ghana, exactly twenty-five years ago. At that point, he was a young man ministering in Nandom, a town just under 20 miles north of Lawra, not far from the Burkina Faso border. It seemed a distinctly unpromising place for a fledgling church, and we vividly remember a couple of vultures looking down menacingly as we sat in the centre of the town.

A quarter of a century later, though now at a different church, Elijah has remained faithful to his calling. He has also recently taken on an additional involvement with Savannah as one of a number of pastors who regularly spend time in schools, taking assemblies and working with the pupils.

When we were in Ghana recently, we sat down to talk with Pastor Elijah, underneath a large acacia tree outside one of the Savannah schools. As pupils wandered past (and the occasional goat), we talked to him about his ministry. He described his work among the schools as a “privilege.” He explained that when he is in the schools, he “encourages the children to bring out their Bibles … we will read together, and I will give an explanation. That is very important: that they read and see the Word, the Bible, for themselves – so they will not think that we are teaching them our own minds but we are encouraging them to read for themselves.” His prayer, he added, is that the children might have a “personal faith and become the children of God.” This personal faith, he went on to say, was given to him when he was a child: his family were all idol worshippers, but his life was changed from that moment. As we come to the end of the conversation, he adds a comment that perhaps summarised his thoughts about his ministry among the schools. “Education without salvation will be nothing.”

Savannah organises regular meetings of the headteachers from our schools. At their last meeting, they spoke warmly of how much the school community appreciates these pastoral visits. Interestingly, they noted that discipline improves when pupils are taught the Bible. They emphasised that visits by pastors also positively affects poor attendance, given that the pastors talk to the students and encourage them. This testimony of headteachers neatly summarises the fact that Savannah, right from the beginning, has had both humanitarian and spiritual motivations – and has never seen the two as being in tension.

Building Work Update

Alongside the ongoing programme of refurbishment work, the following one-off projects have been taking place over recent months:

Teachers’ accommodation We remain grateful to those who have contributed to our project to provide teachers’ accommodation in the most remote of our villages. Without this provision, it is hard to attract and retain teachers. We are glad to report that the accommodation at our schools in Boo and Korh are virtually complete, with the painting and fitting out to follow across the summer. 

We are thankful to report that, just as this newsletter was being produced, we received the welcome news of funding to provide teachers’ accommodation at another of our most remote schools.

These projects are a significant boost to the morale at our most remote schools, and the accommodation is hugely appreciated by teachers. Crucially, it allows us to attract and retain teachers at schools in rural villages. These villages have no alternative accommodation for teachers, and are difficult to access from the local market town of Lawra. 

Access work at Korh  If you visit Korh School during the wet season, you will struggle to access the school building. Although near the road, the school is also near swampy land and, every wet season, there are flooding problems. The Savannah team is therefore constructing a small bridge which will be of benefit both to the school and to the whole village. 

A new Junior High School (JHS) at Danko-Buree The building work to create a JHS or ‘secondary school’ (in UK terms) is complete, and the school up and running. For local families this is a wonderful provision: for the first time their children can study all the way through to the national examination which is taken in Ghana at the age of 14.

New Film

We often say that we wish we could take our loyal supporters to the remote communities of north west Ghana, to meet the people and to witness the impact that the Savannah schools are having on generations of children. In most cases this is not possible, but the next best thing is to bring the work to you by capturing and showing compelling video footage. To this end, we visited Ghana with a videographer in March and we look forward to sharing these new films with you in upcoming meetings, webinars and via our website.

 

A tragedy

Supporters will be familiar with picturesque images of our schoolchildren crossing the Black Volta river on boats to attend school. During June, in a devastating tragedy for the area, one of those boats capsized in the river, which was swollen by recent rains. Tragically, seven children drowned. They were on their way to Lawra Secondary School.

Our thoughts and our prayers are with the bereaved families. 

Finances

Our costs continue to rise in Ghana, and this has been magnified over recent months as the Ghana cedi has strengthened considerably (reducing the relative value of foreign currencies). In more than twenty years of existence, the financial picture over the last year has been our most difficult.

We therefore remain very grateful for, and entirely dependent on, your kind support. As we plan for the future, we continue to find regular direct debit contributions especially helpful. As ever, please feel free to be in contact if you would like to talk to us about any element of Savannah’s work, or you need advice on the practicalities of supporting the work (whether that is amending an existing direct debit, or discussing a legacy).

Above all, we remain thankful to the Lord who is able to supply all of our needs.