A CHEPSTOW teacher who recently returned from a three-month trip to Ghana has raised thousands for a rural community school.

Paul Shewell recently returned from a three-month trip to Ghana, where he was acting principal in a rural community not-for-profit school called Misthy Cee Educational Complex.

Amongst decorating classrooms and school buildings and overseeing the construction of a new dining and assembly hall, he built and equipped a school library dedicated to his great uncle Lesley Howells MBE of Mitchel Troy, who passed away in May.

The school has about 250 pupils and the school accepts pupils from nursery, kindergarten, and primary all the way to junior high school, covering ages of between three-years-old and 16-years-old.

An alumnus of Monmouth School for Boys, Paul graduated from the University of Oxford and University of Cambridge before going into education and developing an interest in international education and international educational development. 

After two previous trips to the school, Paul’s main undertaking was the creation of a library dedicated to the memory of his great uncle, Mr Lesley ’Les’ Howells. He is survived by his wife Joan Howells (who still lives in Mitchel Troy) and his son David Howells (who was also educated at Monmouth School).

A long-time resident of the Monmouth area, Les Howells lived in Mitchel Troy. He was educated and grew up in the area before beginning his extensive overseas work in the Foreign and Colonial Office as a surveyor.

During this time he spent time in Botswana, Rhodesia, Zanzibar, Nigeria, Antigua and Barbados as well as many others. For his services to The Commonwealth he received an MBE from the Queen. 

When he retired, he returned to Monmouth, was active within the church in Mitchel Troy and became involved in the Rotary Club and Old Monmothian Club.

“My stay was extremely enjoyable and I was very warmly welcomed by the staff and within the local community,” Paul said. “Work was hard, at times frustrating, but extremely rewarding. The children were a delight and are so content and happy. They were extremely grateful for anything donated and really appreciate the changes to their school and classrooms.

“I am still involved with the school and am a Consulting Head, assisting with oversight, reporting and overseeing accounting. I am also still involved in additional fundraising that is required to complete the dining/assembly hall and undertake other school improvements.

“To date donations have been hard to come by, but everything is gratefully received. I have given the bulk of all donations myself and have personally donated over £2500 to the project and the various school developments.”

Paul has a crowdfunding page on GoFundMe, and would be grateful for any additional donations. Visit www.gofundme.com/school-construction-fund-ghana