Margreet Carpaij used to teach disabled children in the province of Noord-Brabant in the Netherlands. From 2006 to 2009 she worked as a volunteer in the Ghana Education Service in Sandema, in the Upper East Region of Ghana. A good colleague of hers, Chief Afulang of Siniensi, remarked that children with disabilities were hardly ever  seen in the schools. Those with mental disabilities were often kept hidden from view as they were either seen as a punishment from God or were frightening for others. Those with physical disabilities didn’t go to school simply because they just couldn’t make the journey.

The Chief asked Margreet if she would come back and set up a school for these children. Margreet enthusiastically answered ‘Yes!’. And in September 2020 Margreet left for Sandema – this time to live and work there.

Via Chief Afulang she got a piece of land from the Naasa community in Siniensi – some 10 km from Sandema. With help from the whole community, the necessary craftsmen, a rent-free loan from Margreet herself and many generous donations from people in the Netherlands, a school with two classrooms was built – the Lumen Mundi School. On the 15th of February in 2022 the first 16 children with intellectual and/or physical disabilities started their education.