Project Life
Volunteer in Ghana

The Work:

Before you go we establish how best you will compliment our Whole School Improvement Programme. This will involve working through your skills, interests and previous experiences and matching them to the needs of the communities. Once this has been confirmed you will then have a clear idea of what you can and cannot achieve. Whilst the projects are well supported by local teams of Ghanaian staff in each community, you will be required to work and think for yourself for much of the time. Rural Ghana is a challenging environment and at the best of times you will have experiences that will test the most resilient of characters! This though, is where the needs are, this is where you, approaching the project with a balanced, realistic and objective view, will make the biggest difference.

You will work in one of the schools from Monday to Friday. Days start with an early breakfast before preparing for the day and week ahead; shopping for resources, making props, preparing lesson or coaching plans. Your work will be overseen by the community members and/or teaching staff, depending on what need you are responding to. In some cases this work could be anything from remedial support to helping implement the literacy project, assisting in classroom renovations to organising sports tournaments.

Class sizes are generally large and there is often a danger that because you are a Westerner, you will be expected to have all the answers! This is a daunting mantle to carry, but you are never expected to manage 30-40 children on your own as you should always be working with the local teachers or project managers. The school day typically finishes at around 14:00hrs but your day may continue depending on your schedule. In the afternoons schools generally engage in sports and sometimes there are opportunities for other extra-curricular activities though most of the time, these tend to be volunteer driven.

In the evenings you have the chance to relax and unwind, chat about your day with the Community Volunteer Co-ordinator or other volunteers. Evening time in Ghana can be very social if not short! For a local community member a day can start at 4 or 5 in the morning and finish around 9 in the evening. You are welcome to try and adapt, but the reality is that your day will tend to start around 8 and finish whenever you go to bed.

Put simply, you will expose yourself and people around you to things not experienced before. Changes will happen all around and your lives will change, even over a short period of time. Your infectious personality and engaging instruction style will captivate the kids. You will open their imaginations to new ideas, new skills, new thoughts which they will respond to and give you a wonderful, and rewarding teaching or coaching experience.