Education

The vision for this school grew out of the Fellowship’s long history of caring for children. Dohnavur Fellowship, founded in 1901 by Amy Carmichael, first served as a sanctuary for vulnerable girls and later for boys. To meet the educational needs of the growing community of boys Godfrey Webbpeploe established a school in the 1920s in the serene woodland area known as Vanacharbu. When the boys’ ministry concluded in the late 1970s, DF sought God’s guidance for the continuing purpose of this beautiful campus. During a series of “Meetings of Vision,” Professor Ivan Balasingh shared the difficulties faced by missionaries whose children lacked a safe and stable place to live and study. His deep concern, coupled with the quiet, prayerful setting of Vanacharbu, resonated strongly with the erstwhile leaders of the Fellowship—Miss Margaret Wilkinson, Mr. G. David Aruldasan, and Miss Eleanor D. Backhouse. Out of these conversations emerged a fresh calling.