Shefford students raise funds to help sister school in Ghana

Students in Shefford have been busy raising funds to help their sister school in Ghana.

The year 12 pupils at Samuel Whitbread Academy organised and held a global bake-off to help improve educational facilities at the school in the town of Kwahu-Tafo.

They ran the event on Thursday, December 17 under the guidance of their head of year Lee Huckle, and with support from tutors, in aid of The Methodist Junior High School in Ghana.

Samuel Whitbread has been linked with this school for 11 years and continues to fundraise to help improve the conditions for pupils and staff.

Each of the 14 tutor groups randomly selected a country and had to bake and cook delicacies from there to sell to all other 6th formers and staff.

The selection threw up some challenges with Chad, Ethiopia, Laos and Fiji among countries on the list, but students had researched and baked recipes extremely well.

The former development chief of Kwahu-Tafo, Sir Humphrey Barclay, visited and gave a 30-minute presentation on the improvements that have been made at the school in Ghana along with what future fundraising money will go towards.

The plan is for Samuel Whitbread Academy to raise enough money each year to enable at least two students to progress onto senior high school and university.

Parents in Ghana have to pay school fees and often they cannot afford the costs for the senior high school and so their children’s education and future ambitions come to an end.

Mr Huckle, who is lead link teacher for the school in Ghana, said: “With Samuel Whitbread having this as a priority we are ensuring the future prospects of some of Kwahu-Tafo’s youngsters will be able to change the country for the better in the future.

“The bake-off was a superb success raising more than £350 in just three hours, an amazing achievement.”

He added: “It was amazing to see so many students creating an atmosphere in which the year 12 community could get together to facilitate improvements of others in a much worse position than ourselves.

“All year 12s were a credit to the academy and the local community and long may they continue to support our brothers and sisters at the Methodist Junior High School in Ghana.”

The school plans on taking a group of students to visit Ghana and their sister school in July 2017.