Following their return from volunteering as part of a group trip in Ghana, Isobel Towse and Siun Mc Fadden from Schull Community College, Co. Cork have kindly shared with us all the wonders of their amazing experience abroad. We’ve uploaded this handmade scrapbook here which should give both groups and the individual volunteer a unique insight into what they can expect on a volunteer placement with Projects Abroad.

This book captures everything, from preparation and fund-raising to survival tips for the western volunteer. It shows them cooking for the children in the orphanage, hanging with the locals, unique weekend travel opportunities and all of their efforts in between.

This colorful presentation details firsthand what a placement with us in Ghana has to offer. It neatly sums up our slogan: Help, learn, explore and is enough to inspire anyone to venture on their own voluntary mission overseas. For those of you who have already been to Ghana with us, it also succeeds in welcoming you back there too, even if just for a mere ten minutes!

Hope you enjoy it!

If you have any questions please do get in touch.

Check out the scrapbook: Here

Learn more about our programs in Ghana HERE

By Ian Birbeck, Recruitment Director - Projects Abroad UK

Last week I received an email from Graham Spencer from Colden Common Youth Football Club (www.ccyfc.co.uk) saying he had a number of shirts we could take out to some of our football projects overseas. Colden Common Youth team are based near Eastleigh, Southampton. Last Tuesday I was passing through and called in on Graham who proceeded to fill my car with about 200 football shirts as well as socks, shirts, training tops etc.

Graham passed me a couple of Colden Common pennants which we can pass over to the team which receives them. There are lots of teams which will be proud to run out in Colden colours. We hope to take some to South Africa and some others to Ghana. I know from my time in Ghana last summer that there will be an eager response from our Cantonments club.

The next task is to get the shirts overseas. Staff will be taking extra luggage on their upcoming trips to Ghana and South Africa. If anyone knows an airline willing to courier them out free from extortionate couriering fees please let me know.

Thank you to Graham and Colden Common Youth F.C. Colden Common were founded thirty years ago to offer local children in the village to play and enjoy football. With now over twenty teams they have clearly done a great job at home. It is great that they are now able to help young footballers on the other side of the world.

By Christina Barron, Projects Abroad Volunteer - Ghana

I’m Christina Barron, I’m 18, and I’m in Ghana!!! This is my first big trip alone away from home, so naturally I was a little nervous about spending 3 months in Africa, but I’ve found it’s the best decision I’ve ever made!

I’ve been planning to go to Africa for years and now I’m finally here, I’m finding it even more awesome, eye-opening and challenging than I’d originally anticipated. I signed up to teach English and Creative Arts at Nana Aframea Preparatory School (NAPSCO), and when I arrived, it turned out that the teacher for Stage 1 had resigned the previous week, so I was given the whole of the Stage 1(aged 6-8-ish) - not only teaching English and art, but Maths, Science, RME and Twi[a local language] also! I love a challenge, so I agreed and threw myself into the Ultimate Teaching experience! I’ve found it difficult with regards to the children understanding my accent, and the big open-plan classroom shared with other Stages makes it slightly chaotic and hard to discipline, but the children are all very eager and energetic so it’s really fun just to be with them!

After one week of Stage 1 I’m on the eve of finishing a week of teaching Stage 2, as their teacher is at a workshop all week. I love Stage 2. As the headmaster said, “it is your ‘Kingdom’!” They all want to learn so much in the mornings that they refuse to go to break until they’ve finished their exercise that I have set. That would never happen back in Wales! It has been difficult to discipline the students- I’ve never seen children fight so much! And I think the novelty of having an Obroni teacher causes very short attention spans. I’ve also never seen pencils vanish so quickly!

This is my second week now and I feel I’m settling in in the school and having a blast! All the staff is so supportive and lovely!

Travellings are awesome too, so far as I can tell, having only travelled one weekend. The Boti Falls are a brilliant idea- though this time of the year there’s not much waterfalls but the views from umbrella rock are breathtaking! I went with a few volunteers up a mountain the next morning and saw some epic views from the top, but the defining moment was when we got back down and a local was warning us of a lion that supposedly lives on the mountain! That was when it hit me and I realised I’m in Africa!!

I‘ve been with two host families- Comfort’s and Dinah’s- both are brilliant, welcoming, and always up for a laugh. Most embarrassing moment so far was getting stuck in the shower at Comfort’s and having to yell for help. When the door was finally prized open, it revealed the majority of Comfort’s family with several tools to help me get out; all laughing hysterically as I clutched my towel around me! They’re also the best Twi teachers in Ghana and Dinah is so accommodating and friendly!

The food’s fantastic, although servings are huge! I’d recommend Red-red, Jollof rice, fried Plantain and that amazing peanut sauce that Dinah makes!

Share your experience with us too!

By Jonatan Arriaga,

Ghana is got everything for a great time! It is very different from the rest of West Africa and certainly one of the most vibrant destinations in the whole of the continent. Smiles as big as the sea and amazing friendliness are the things you will find in there!

If you are planning a get away to Africa, follow the Dos and don’ts from Christina Barron and Rodolphe Renou, volunteers doing a placement with Projects Abroad in Ghana; for sure they will be useful for you!

Dos:
Try to speak a lot with everyone, it’s always funny
Meet a lot of Ghanaians who can be your friends like at home
Travel
Be happy
Have plenty of patience and pencils and positivity
Forget your life at home and even try to do the same things here

Don’ts
Burkina Faso (Ed. ?)
Spend your time with other Obronis (foreigners) all the time
Travel alone at night if you’re a girl- especially walking. Always go with a buddy.
Expect the same things you live back home.

Further suggestions? Please let me know!

By Jonatan Arriaga,

Are you or will you be volunteering in Ghana? Check out these top 3 suggestions from volunteers already in Ghana.

-Embrace the fact that Ghana is different; do not try to fight and learn from it; it is part of the process. Anna Slattery, USA- Care

- Adapt to the culture, spend some time with the local people and try to learn a bit of the local language, which will make your time even better. - Henriette Jacobsen, Denmark. Sports in Ghana

- Go out in the weekends and see the entire country, have fun, be open to everything and taste the fufu! Jelle Swaan, Holland-Teaching

By Jonatan Arriaga,

The kids at Kumasi Children’s Home saw a different dawn that morning. They had an extra reason to smile. They were playing football that day.

We got into the orphanage and the energized and vibrant kids warmly welcomed us! Football, football, is everything they were talking about!

‘Pass me the ball, I will score today!’ A kid told me as soon as I grabbed the ball to start the warm-up. The day is boiling but the feet of the young players were desperate for some action! There is water but no one sees it, they are focused on the ball.

Locals Vs. Obronis (foreigners). The local team formed by about 30 kids and the foreign team formed by volunteers and friends. The referee’s lungs took a deep breath and started the game!

Not a long time passed when the local team scored the first one! Three seconds later, the same team netted the ball! And so on and on. Endlessly! In about 20 minutes the score was 7-0! We tried our best against the local team but they scored another 5 goals leaving us no real chance to show our best foreign skills, which seemed pretty rusty that day!

After the match the kids enjoyed some fruit juice, fresh water and some cookies. It was great to spend such a great time with all the kids! I will count my days until I go back to Kumasi to play football again with them…and maybe my team will be able to win this time!

By Jonatan Arriaga,

When I arrived in Ghana I started wondering where the buses were! I just could see an army of little screaming-vans in the streets. This little vans are adorned with a man in the main door, a man who tries to shout louder than the other screamers from the other van services.

These little talking-vans are called Tro-Tros. At first it is a bit tricky to understand how they work but once you have received an induction and you have learned the main junction names is when the yelling men in the tro-tros start to make sense. They scream out loud the name of route/junction they are going to!

The tro-tro has space for about 12 passengers including the talking man that will not forget that you haven’t paid!

It is always a new world to discover everyday inside one of these little speaking-travel machines.

Jonatan and Mamud

Editor Note: Jonatan Arriaga, the Deputy Manager of Projects Abroad in Mexico, is spending the next couple of months in Ghana working with our staff and volunteers. He will be sending in regular updates of his time in Ghana and we are devoting the next week on the blog to Ghana Week! We hope you enjoy it!

By Jonatan Arriaga,

Throughout the diverse cultures I’ve had the chance to see there is certainly an immense diversity in motivations for people. You can tell by the different people you meet in life how determined they are to get what they call their dream.

In the case of Mamud Billa, motivation meets him and reaches others on its way. Starting his mission under a mango tree back in 1998, he has been teaching children whom circumstances do not allow them to join school. His school started with 5 kids.

‘Covered by the shelter of the mango tree we were used to learn together. Under the fresh shade of the talking tree they learned the numbers’ Mamud mentions.

The second period of the school, or better known as the ‘second mango tree period’ got many more kids. Mamud Billa was teaching to about 80 kids!

Now the school has been officially established. ‘Future Leaders Underprivileged Children Centre’ (UCC).

Mamud Billa goes out to look for kids in hard situations and he invites them to join the school enabling them to have the basics of education. He also works encouraging the parents to send their children to school.

This way he has been able to send to higher education level schools almost 115 kids! This is what we can call a great passion and a life-changing experience.

As the number of kids grows, he needs more help from volunteers who want to teach one-to-one. Through the help of others he strengthens his school and the education of the kids.

Projects Abroad joins his cause and volunteers are teaching in the school. We are happy to know that there is great work done by the volunteers for the kids!

Congratulations to a man dedicating his life to the improvement of others’.

Editor Note: Jonatan Arriaga, the Deputy Manager of Projects Abroad in Mexico, is spending the next couple of months in Ghana working with our staff and volunteers. He will be sending in regular updates of his time in Ghana and we are devoting the next week on the blog to Ghana Week! We hope you enjoy it!

By Jonatan Arriaga,

Walking down the dusty and warm streets of a village near Cape Coast, I found myself in the entrance of a Leprosy Center. Along with the volunteers and the medical crew, our eyes started analyzing the place like a baby analyzing a new toy. So we started our way.

The blast of happiness from the children when they saw us arriving is something I won’t forget. We are going to give some medical supplies and attention to the people affected by this disease.

Knocking at the doors of the houses of the people we invited them to take the chance to receive a little treatment for their wounds. In these moments you feel great to be part of such eye-opening experience and also for the opportunity to bring medicine they need to treat the wounds.

They might have wounds on their bodies but several told me that the wounds that were really helped by our visit were inside.

The volunteers, medical crew and myself headed off to Cape Coast to keep on going with our work so we got into a taxi and said goodbye to all the people who embraced us like a family.

No doubt this is an extremely interesting placement for those who want to dedicate their life to the medical world!

Are you one of them?