Ghana
Education Runway has been active in Ghana since 2014. We came into contact with Osman Issifu, who is still our contact person there, via the Dutch Partnership for Ghana Foundation. They worked locally together with CPYWD (Community Partnership for Youth and Women Development).
Each year, together with Osman, we make a plan to help students to progress in their studies and to enable new students to start studying. Initially we focused on group lessons in the Yemo, Vogu and Tignaayili communities close to Tamale in the north of Ghana. Since 2016 Education Runway has been supporting individual students following teaching studies at college or university in and around Tamale. Everything is aimed at supporting the qualified students to become teachers in front of the class. In this way we have helped some 10 young people between 2016 and 2025 who are
now actively teaching in front of the class and some of whom are continuing their further studies. In October 2018 Joost visited Tamale, Ghana, in order to see the students, Mariam and Falida, viewing their apprentice teaching posts and to discuss future plans for Education Runway in Ghana with our contact Osman Issifu. Osman works voluntarily there for us but is also a farmer. But he’s also following didactic studies so that he’s better equipped to support the students and to better understand the education system.
In June 2023 we received a lovely letter from Lydia, Hannah and Comfort where they expressed their gratitude to Education Runway and “our man in Ghana”, Osman! Mariam Pumaya sent us a movie clip in 2024 where she expressed her thanks for the support she has received from Education Runway. The clip also gives a really good picture of the school classes and the education system in Ghana. As we consistently gained more donors we have been able to significantly increase the number of students that receive our support. Now, in January 2026, we are financing some 12 students at the same time. 2 students will complete their studies this year, one in 2027 and the remaining 10 in 2028/29.
Jenny and Joost have monthly email and WhatsApp exchanges with both Osman and the various students to monitor the progress as well as to plan for the future.
Contactpersoon voor Ghana vanuit onze Stichting: Jenny Caulfield (en Joost Hasperhoven).
Malawi
Education Runway has been operating in Blantyre in southern Malawi since 2012. Between 2012 and 2014, Education Runway funded the 2½-year training at the DAPP Teacher Training College in Blantyre, Malawi of a primary school teacher. This ‘first student’ was Mary Madise. This was the start of our efforts in Malawi. Through the monastic order ‘Sisters of Our Lady’ in Stella Maris, Blantyre, where we have been in contact with Sr. Elizabeth Nsewa since 2012, we have been able to help many students pay for their studies over the past 15 years. The sisters in Stella Maris also run an orphanage and primary school called Jacaranda. Many of our students in recent years came from this orphanage.
Evelyn and Joost visited Malawi in 2014 and 2019 and were able to meet many students. Between 2012 and 2025, Education Runway was able to support 22 students, many of whom graduated from the Teacher Training College in Blantyre. few are doing a university education at the University of Lilongwe.
Since the Malawian government did not organize any admission exams for the country’s teacher training courses in 2025, no new students will enter in 2025/26. Instead, we support the 2-year online training courses of 4 teachers in the Online Development Learning program. Starting the academic year 2026/27, we hope to be able to admit new students again.
Contact person for Malawi at our Foundation: Joost Hasperhoven
Kenya
Through the Friends of Medical Missionary Sisters Foundation in Utrecht, we got in contact with the mission in Ang’iya Village, Homa Bay in Kenya in 2012. Homa Bay is a small and busy town in western Kenya located on the south coast of the Winam Gulf on Lake Victoria, 400 km west of Nairobi. 32,000 People live in the centre and 55,000 people in the conurbation.
In 2006, three sisters started this medical post. One of them was the Dutch Sister Mien Leistra who was our contact in the early years. After her return to the Netherlands in 2019, the contact was through Sr. Gaudencia. Because of her deployment to South Sudan, Sr. Christine took over from her in 2025. Since many contacts are in a wide radius around Homa Bay, the Sisters are an indispensable link for us in the selection and communication with the students. Since 2012, about 20 students have successfully completed their training. The courses
followed vary from nursery and primary teachers to teachers of Mathematics and Geography.
Contact person for Kenya at our foundation: Michiel de Jong
Ethiopia
In 2014 Joost and Evelyn visited Ethiopia and had a guide Yohanes who himself was supported by a family from the Netherlands in his youth. He thought it would be nice if our Foundation could support some young people in his country and brought us in contact with Muluye in Lalibela (northern Ethiopia), who was active at a new school
with young people who wanted to become teachers there. We got to know each other and since then we have had aspiring teachers who would like to follow a course registered through Muluye. He also provided the information necessary for us.
Annually, we supported an average of 2-4 students there until the summer of 2025. Unfortunately, due to the rising tensions and outbursts of violence in the northern region, we could no longer maintain our cooperation and had to say goodbye to Muluye and Yohanes. Fortunately, the last 2 students we supported through them managed to complete their studies with very high scores in safe cities. See video Mengistu on Homepage.
At the end of 2024, Mihreteab (himself coming from Ethiopia) -together with Evelyn- started looking for a new contact person for the students. Through our contact person in Kenya, we got in contact with Sister Senait Mengesha, who works south of Addis Ababa in Attate and agreed to select students for us. In the summer of 2025, she managed to find the first 6 young people who want to follow an educational training. We hope that many more may follow.
Contact person for Ethiopia at our Foundation: Mihreteab Habtemichael (and Evelyn Hasperhoven)
