Social Welfare (Orphanage and street
children) Voluntary Work
Volunteers assist in caring for orphans, destitute and abandoned children. Caring work includes, assisting in cooking for the children, bathing them and showing them love. Some of the orphans lost their parents through HIV/AIDS. Volunteers can also assist in teaching English language and other subjects and extra curriculum activities at the orphanages. Volunteers will be guided by a local teacher during the first week of classes at the orphanage in regard to lesson plans, schedules and teaching curriculum. If the volunteer or volunteer-intern is ready at the beginning of the second week, he or she may begin teaching independently.
Social Welfare (Computer Training) Voluntary Work
Volunteers assist in providing free computer training to under-privileged people. The training will be in any of the following areas: Introduction or windows, Internet Orientation, Ms. Word, Ms. Excel (spread sheet), Ms. Access, Ms. Power Point, Ms. Front page, Publisher, Adobe Page maker, Corel Draw, Adobe Photoshop, typing etc. There will also be some computer hardware training in addition to the software training, depending on the knowledge and skills of the volunteers. The target groups of people we have been focusing on training them computer skills are under-privileged people such as people from poor income families who as a result of that have become school drop outs, unskilled youth and in some cases commercial sex workers. This is to enable them acquire employable skills to enable them live dignified lives for personal and national development.
Teaching Volunteer Work
Volunteers and volunteer-interns assist in teaching English language, mathematics and other subjects or extra curriculum activities at nursery, primary and junior secondary schools. Volunteers and interns will be guided by a local teacher in the school. They will shadow the local teacher to become familiar with the school, the children, and the teaching curriculum during the first week of classes. If the volunteer or intern is ready at the beginning of the second week, he or she may begin teaching independently.
Health Care/Medical and Nursing Volunteering
Medical student volunteers shadow local medical doctors by assisting them and learn by observing their work at hospitals. Nursing student volunteers shadow local nurses by assisting them and learn by observing their work at hospitals. Pre-medical students and other health care related student volunteers assist local health care professionals at clinics and learn by observing their work. Participants do not offer drug injections or perform surgery. Our health care programs bring service-learning into hospitals and clinics around Ghana, allowing participants to gain insight on the contextual constructs of illness and healing in foreign settings.
Health Education (HIV/AIDS Education) Volunteering
Volunteers assist people to prevent the transmission of HIV and to provide support to those affected. Following a one week short training volunteers will assist in raising awareness of the disease through talks and seminars at local schools and community meetings. HIV/AIDS talks and seminars issues will include topics on the nature of the disease, modes of transmission, statistic reports, methods of preventing its spread, history and symptoms of the disease. There may also be activities like: Promoting voluntary HIV counseling and testing; participating in workshops to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission; providing care and support to the People Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). There may be periodic HIV/AIDS documentary video film shows or dramatic live shows as part of the program.
Christian Religion/Church Voluntary
Work
(a) Volunteers from any Christian denomination are welcome to serve as singers, musical instrumentalists, prayer warriors, announcement presenters, praises and worship leaders and as part of hospital prayer visitation group. (b)Volunteers who are Christian pastors and ministers from reputable churches worldwide will assist in church work as pastors, prophets, deliverance ministers, preachers and counselors at churches in Ghana and work alongside local Christian ministers. (c) Non-Christians who are willing to learn about the Christian faith are welcome to join this program. This program is design to enable both Christians and non-Christians to experience Christianity today and Christian ministry in a new country (Ghana) and in a new cultural environment.
Conservation/Tree Planting Volunteer Work
Volunteers assist in picking seeds from trees, filling seed bags with enriched soil and planting tree seeds in it, watering tree seedlings at our nursery, transplanting high regenerative trees to preserve the environment and to serve as tree seed source for free distribution. Some information about the role of tree planting in global environmental preservation can be found by clicking here:
Media and Journalism/Mass Media Volunteering
Participants may volunteer with newspapers and magazines publications, photography, film production or media-based awareness projects promoting the rights of women and children. Activities include language editing. Volunteers and intern-student volunteers are welcome.
Law and Legal Volunteer Work
Participants volunteer with legal professionals, practitioners and legal Chambers. This placement is for law students or other people interested in pursuing the legal profession. Work involves general office work at legal chambers and observing work activities at law courts. Volunteers and intern-student volunteers are welcome.
Sports and Fitness Volunteer Work
Participants volunteer by teaching soccer, basketball, baseball, volleyball, swimming and a variety of other sports to local talents at schools and communities.
Program Schedules, Requirements and Provisions:
People can participate in most of the programs anytime of year. Volunteers work alongside local professionals and workers and as part of a team. Intern-student-volunteers assist and observe local professionals in their work. Special skills, professional qualifications or previous experience are not required of volunteers in the programs except the health care/medical/nursing programs, computer training programs and a few other programs. Anybody with the initiative, drive and compassion to help the under-privileged in overcoming their challenges and their struggle for dignity are welcome to participate in most of the programs. Volunteers should have strong work ethic, ability to work independently or as part of a team, and willingness to follow direction; and good interpersonal skills, flexibility, and a sense of humor. Their educational level should be at least at the high/secondary school level and must be able to speak English.
The number of working days for the volunteers and interns is 5 days in a week. Their number of working hours a day is 5 to 8, depending on the number of hours they would like to work daily. Participants of our orphanage and Christian religion programs can stay for up to a period of up to 6 months. Participants of our other programs can stay for a period of up to 12 weeks.
Participants stay with our host families. Our host families are carefully selected, well screened, respectable and friendly people. Three meals a day are provided to the participants. Children are welcome to accompany their parents or adult guardians to our programs and share room with them. We offer 50 percent discount on the fee for children whose ages ranges from 4 to 14 years.
A private room with a lock and bed are provided to each volunteer. The volunteer work takes place in the Greater-Accra, Eastern and the Central Regions of Ghana and not more than 220km from Accra. Applicants should be 16 to 60 years of age. Three days or more notice is needed by us to arrange a placement.
Free Tours For Groups
We offer free tours in Ghana for groups of 6 or more friends or family members from a same country, arriving in Ghana on a same date and participating in our volunteer work program in Ghana. We offer to them 3 days tours if their period of participation in our program is 7 days, 4 days tours if their period in our program is 14 days, 6 days tours if their period in our program is 21 or more days. All meals, transportation, tour site fees, professional tour guide's fee will be provided free of charge to the volunteers during the tours.
Participation Fee
A participation fee is paid by the volunteers and the volunteer/interns. The fee includes the meals and accommodation expenses of the participants, administrative expenses; airport pick ups and drop offs, in-country orientation, 24 hour x 7 days a week staff support, publicizing and other general support of the program. Participants make payment of their fees at a day after their arrival in Ghana and when they are personally in Ghana. The participation fee for the volunteering and internship-volunteering program we offer in Ghana is as follows:-
(a) 297 British Pounds for 1 to 2 weeks
(b) 397 British Pounds for 3 to 4 weeks
(c) 497 British Pounds for 5 to 6 weeks
(d) 597 British Pounds for 7 to 8 weeks
(e) 697 British Pounds for 9 to 10 weeks
(f) 797 British Pounds for 11 to 12 weeks
Benefits Of Participating
Participating in our overseas volunteer programs in Ghana will offer you the opportunity in helping others and making the world a better place to live. It will also make your CV shine as well as offering you the opportunity in acquiring a valuable work experience and putting into use your creative skills. You will also have a cultural exchange, make new friends and travel companions, learn the local language, cooking the local food, learn about the rich Ghanaian culture and experience her unique hospitality. It also offers you the opportunity to travel around Ghana in a unique way and absolutely free of charge if you are a group of 6 or more friends or family members arriving in Ghana on a same date.
Previous Participants
Names and contact information of previous participants from Europe and North America are available on request. We welcome prospective participants to contact them for first hand information about their experiences in our programs in Ghana.
Participation Registration and Placement Details
Contact us for email registration forms and sign up to receive placement details regarding a specific program. Placement details and any other relevant information pertaining to participation including the contact information of previous volunteers are sent to prospective volunteers after they have sent to us completed registration forms and have undergone our successful telephone interview as a security check.
Contact:
Volunteer in Africa
P.O. Box 602, Osu Accra, GHANA, West Africa
Phone: +233-20-8731745
E-mail: voluinafrica@yahoo.com
E-mail: ebensten73@yahoo.com
Website: www.volunteeringinafrica.org
