Sabre Charitable Trust

Aims
The Sabre Charitable Trust was set up in 2004 to help schools and other institutions in West Africa with infrastructure improvements, resource supplies and staff training programmes. In addition to schools, the SCT aims to assist in health and conservation. Education is fundamental to development, and if Kindergarten children can be given a decent start to their schooling, then there is real hope for the future. The Sabre Charitable Trust is a small organisation, working at minimal cost to ensure that its help and assistance reaches those who need it most. The role of the Sabre Charitable Trust is complimented by Twin Abroad and Global Vision International as well a variety of schools in the UK. We recognise that the donations of the volunteers will not be sufficient to sustain the projects after they have returned home, so this is where the financial contributions we receive are used.

Economic responsibility
We charge a flat fee in the UK of £300 per volunteer placement, all other funds are paid directly to the community liaison/volunteer management team. In each of the communities we work with there is a team of 4 people who are responsible for managing volunteers. They are all local Ghanaians and in nearly every case, community members.

For our trips, we use locally hired vehicles or in some cases ones that are lent to us by hosting communities. We adopt a policy where by we take in everything we need and leave nothing we don't need. This way we impact minimally on what the community uses/needs for itself

On average 60% of the placement cost goes to Ghana, we intend this to be higher and are currently working on ways to enable this to happen, much of this will be achieved through partnerships that will supplement the charities running costs. It is this money that provides the equipment, materials and skilled labour needed to make the projects work. This employment of a local work force ensures that villagers are able to earn a much needed income that can replace income earned through current activities like charcoal making, illegal hunting and logging, all of which can be viewed as destructive to the environment.

There are only 2 white people involved in the operation on a full time basis, the other 12 staff are all Ghanaians.

All the places we stay are either Ghanaian owned Guesthouses or Community Based Eco-tourism Sites (Initiative developed by the NCRC, USAID and the Peacecorp which we have been supporting since 2003)

Environmental responsibility
Most of the places we stay do not have electricity or running water so their 'Environmental policies' are part of daily life. For those places that we stay in cities (start and end of trip), we are trying to engage them in effecting change, but this often takes much longer than one hopes! We also have a policy of not using the same city accommodation every time, we aim to ensure that what money we spend in Ghana is spread as evenly as possible.

We don't have an office, we work from home. All light bulbs in our homes are energy efficient, all white goods have low energy consumption. We recycle anything we print, but the quantities of documents we print is minimal. Any one taking part in a trip only receives PDF documents.

We are looking at partnering with a local farmers union in Ghana to plant trees and are looking to engage UK companies to buy our energy savings through the carbon offset scheme.

Social responsibility
We are a community development charity, everything we do is focused on developing communities in partnership with elders and local authorities. It is the communities who ascertain whether volunteers are needed and we work with them to ensure that their presence is maximised to the benefit of the community, but also balancing out the needs of the volunteer.

Over the last four years we have worked with only three communities as part of a 5-10year development plan. This has built up enormous trust on both sides and shows a deep level of commitment to each of the communities. Volunteers and trips focus on specific needs that have been highlighted by the community development team (generally the elders committee). The skills of volunteers are then matched to one or several of these projects that they can realistically effect a positive outcome in the time they have available.

We are a partner organisation to Comhlamh, YET, KBYG Campaign and are about to confirm a long-term development plan with NCRC in Ghana. We are also working towards the creation of a Ghana based volunteer network to develop systems and practices for international and local organisations working on local community projects.

In 2008 we are being observed by another student from Cambridge University Geography department as part of an annual assessment of volunteer organisations in Ghana. The last study, actually the first, was conducted last summer and out of the local and international organisations observed, Sabre Trust came out on top for its ethical, environmental and community focused support.