Media Centre for Volunteer with Turtles in Ghana

Caroline Cooper

I would recommend volunteering in Ghana to anyone who has a genuine interest and love of Sea Turtles and wants to throw themselves into the Community of Akwidaa in order to educate the villagers of the importance of conservation. I volunteered for the month of January and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. You need to be self-motivated, full of initiative and prepared for hard work in order to make a difference. Tom and Jo give lots of support and ideas, however it is up to you to be creative and look for ways to raise money for the community fund. For instance I made turtles with the local children and stuffed them with sand to be sold as souvenirs at the Lodge. While the lesson was chaotic with the children, it was incredible fun and rewarding to see their pride in the unique turtle they had created. I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to be part of community life; to speak in church about conservation, to teach the children about the eco system and about the different species of turtles. Just getting to know the local people including the people who once poached turtles and stole the eggs, was fascinating. I was able to understand the challenges around the ‘obruni’ coming in and telling them to simply stop poaching, when this was something that they had done for years. The days were fun packed and varied. I used to coach Moses, one of the Turtle Guides on how to do a guided tour and what to say to encourage tourists to donate more generously. It took patience and understanding due to language barriers and at the same time was immensely rewarding to help him develop his skills. Each night Chelsea and I would conduct beach patrols searching for tracks or even better, a turtle coming into nest. These could be anytime from 22:00 to 06:00 and used to take us between 2 hours and 4 hours depending whether we found anything. During the month of January we were lucky enough to sea a Leatherback and an Olive Ridley nesting. They were amazing sights and I felt very privileged to be part of it. Data at the moment is limited so we just recorded the basics however as the project moves on much more is needed in order to eventually try to ensure the beach becomes a protected conservation site. Educating the children was brilliant. As is so often the case, the best ideas were the simple ones. I ran one lesson where we made a frieze on the classroom wall to show underwater life. Something as simple as sticking sand on the bottom of blue card to show the ocean floor brought gasps of delight from both young and old. So, my advice would not be to over complicate matters. Stick to the simple and ensure you have a clear message to communicate and make it fun. When we saw children playing at the weekend in the sand and making turtles, we began to feel our message was hitting home. The living conditions on the project are the best I have encountered as a volunteer. You will find you live in an oasis overlooking a stunning beach, in natural eco tourist surroundings, delicious food and friendly staff. This all makes leaving so much more difficult!