Media Centre for Volunteer in Ghana

Natalie

I thought the pre-departure support was pretty much excellent. I have never volunteered, flown, or gone to a foreign country alone and I think the support of GVI made it easy and stress free. Feedback and communication was fast and accurate and having only 1 or 2 people to contact helped immensely. Even the recommended flight company were exceptional with their advice!

I found the Volunteer project hard work but equally rewarding. It is pretty much non stop 'on the go' as soon as you arrive. I think the daily routine worked wonders to get you into the frame of mind that you are there to work and provide a teaching service to the kids. The kids receive a high level of teaching from mere 'Joe Blogs' like us and they really enjoy it. I couldn't believe that I had a class of 20 smiling kids sat down like angels waiting for class to start. Not sure you would get that at home!

I enjoyed the actual act of teaching the kids the most. I do think the whole month was really hard work but every day, walking into a lesson of expectant little faces made the hard work very worthwhile. Meeting Doreen and the other co-ordinators was fantastic; considering these people were pretty much your family for a month it was a bonus that everyone was so lovely.

I think it's worth re-iterating the confidence that I had in GVI before I left for Guatemala. As I mentioned, this whole volunteer/abroad thing was an entirely new experience for me and the excellent support and advice from GVI through e-mails and the website was invaluable. From my own and others experience, I would not hesitate to recommend GVI to volunteer through. The projects are obviously well established, with confident co-ordinators who believe whole heartedly in their project.”