More than 200 athletes and Physical Education instructors from seven senior high schools in the Savannah Region have been left stranded in Buipe after failing to secure the funds needed to travel for the 32nd Inter-Regional Senior High School Sports Festival in Sekondi-Takoradi.
The group, which has been in camp since November 3, was expected to depart on Saturday, November 15, but not a pesewa of their GHS150,000 budget has been released, JoyNews has learned.
Some frustrated officials told JoyNews on condition of anonymity that they have managed to keep the athletes in camp for 12 days with support from the Ghana Education Service (GES) and various schools, but can no longer sustain their stay.
“We need fifteen thousand cedis to enable us to participate like the other regions,” one official lamented. “The camping period is over, and the resources we need to relocate to Tarkoradi are not forthcoming.”
The 32nd Inter-Regional Sports Festival, organised by the National Schools and Colleges Sports Federation, will run from November 15 to 24, 2025, under the theme “Ghana’s future champions lie in school sports.”
Despite weeks of preparation, officials say all attempts to secure support from the Savannah Regional Coordinating Council, the seven district assemblies, CEOs, prominent indigenes, and local chiefs have yielded no results.
“Until now, not a single intervention has come from anybody,” another source complained. “Nobody has even called to ask how Savannah Region is participating. It’s a shame to us as a region.”
They fear that if urgent support does not come today, they will have no choice but to send the athletes back to their various schools across districts, including Bole and Salaga.
Repeated attempts by JoyNews to reach the Savannah Regional Director of the Ghana Education Service for comment proved unsuccessful, as his phone line remained busy.
Meanwhile, the stranded group is appealing to individuals, institutions, and philanthropists—both indigenes and non-indigenes—to assist so the athletes can travel and represent the region at the national event in Sekondi.