Volunteering
There are a range of rural community projects that you can get involved with, you have the chance to experience all the development work and initiatives taking place and you can decide which aspects of the programme you’d like to focus on during your stay. And with charges of only £5 a day for food and accommodation compared to up to £50 other programmes charge, you can make your sta
y as long or as short as you’d like! What you make out of the project is up to you, there are opportunities to become:
A teacher of several subjects
Computer coach
AIDS awareness worker
Sports coach
Construction worker
Administrator
Councillor
Extra-curricular activity organiser
There are also opportunities to teach students any special skills you might posses. Vocational skills such as waitering, cookery or office skills are very handy as you are passing on knowledge to the students that can help them provide for their families. Computer sessions or sports coaching are other areas of benefit. A typical day as a volunteer will comprise of both time on your project and time to relax and immerse yourself in the culture. On the weekends you have the chance to explore Kumasi with your fellow volunteers and go to church with your host family if you wish. Your week day might look something like this:
07:00: Its rise and shine, and time for breakfast. Your hosts will be very accommodating and will prepare nearly anything for you to make sure you have a good meal to start the day. You will also spend some time preparing for the day, ensuring you have everything you need for the day ahead.
07:45: Off to work on your chosen projects.
11:15 - 1130: You will be picked up from your project and be taken back to the house for lunch.
12:00: Lunch. A chance to try more exotic Ghanaian food like Kelewele!
13:00: Return to your project - You can return either to building, teaching or your chosen area. The afternoons can sometimes be dedicated to sports or other extra-curricular activities so do give some thought as to what your might want to do with the school for these times! They are very flexible to bring any ideas you have to the table and see what can be made of them.
16:30: You will return to the house for dinner as well as time to relax. If you are keen you could use this time to run your own little project for the students. One of the most popular choices and easiest is to run computer sessions from the comfort of your house. This is a fantastic chance to get to know your students in a much more relaxed atmosphere as well as give them a great opportunity to learn from you.
20:00: Time for traditional Ghanaian nightlife! Whilst you might think the village goes to sleep at sun set you can be assured there is plenty going on. With a pub literally next-door to your accommodation and hundreds of people keen to meet you, you will never be without a nights entertainment, especially if the football is on! Fundraising
Most volunteers normally wish to donate something to the school on their arrival, so we hope that the list below will give you an idea of some things that would be very helpful in Ghana. However, if you don’t think you will have much space to pack anything extra then you might want to think about fundraising. Many volunteers in the past have taken part in some fundraising activities, such as sponsored walks, charity dances etc, to raise just a little extra cash to take out with them to put towards a project of their choice at the school. If you would like to, we can help you with fundraising initiatives by setting you up with your own personal fundraising page on Virgin Money Giving, so please just ask. You could:
Raise funds at work. If your employer agrees holding a raffle where the winner gets one day off work, or a jeans day where everyone pays £1 to dress down for the day. Have a car boot sale or ebay sale of old clothes or unwanted items. Friends and family may we willing to donate old items for you to sell and if you tell people where the money is going, they might be willing to pay a little bit more to help a good cause! Organise a local pub quiz and perhaps even hold a raffle at the same time. Selling cakes at school, work or even to friends can be very profitable, especially if there are a lot of people. Who can say no to cake or a tea/coffee break? Accommodation, meals and costs
During your project, you will have the fantastic opportunity to live with a local family. You should go with an open mind to your host family, you may be surprised by the accommodation standards compared to those you are used to. Your families will be incredibly warm and welcoming and they have very little and what they do have they are sharing with you. Please try and remember this during your time with them. All accommodation have been carefully inspected and deemed suitable by a member of the team. You will be provided with three meals a day, though if you are ever hungry speak to your host family who sort something out for you. The accommodation is normally located close to your school so you will always be able to cook for yourself should you wish. This is an excellent chance to try some local dishes, and also to try and cook a traditional meal from back home for your host family too! You will need to buy your own drinking water, bottled mineral water or treated ‘Pure’ water is best and is also very cheap. Sachet water is very common in Ghana and most volunteers happily drink from the sachets. Accommodation and meals cost just roughly £5 a day. Food is extremely cheap in Ghana but we’d advise around £50 a week spending money. This will be ample but it’s better to have too much rather than too little. There are always trips and tours you can go on over the weekend but these may push you over budget. VISA is the most internationally recognised type of card, so we’d suggest you bring a VISA debit and/or credit card. Mastercard is not accepted in Ghana. Most importantly, however; Ashanti ICCES/Vol Africa do not charge you anything more than your accommodation fees! Many other ‘experience’ or ‘gap year’ companies will charge you admin fees or inflated accommodation charges, some of them can run as high as £50 a day, most of which doesn’t make it to the people who need it. As a charity we make sure every penny goes to your host family. Our reduced costs help make it easier for you to take the trip and perhaps even donate some of the saved money to the charity! Please note that you will have to pay for your airfares to Ghana. Prices fluctuate but these are normally around £400. Again, items such as Visas, personal travel insurance and vaccines will have to payed for so remember these when drawing up a budget. Volunteers must be 18+ but no previous teaching experience is necessary, though if you have something like a TEFL qualification it can be very helpful. For more information about the volunteering programme, or to see what you can do to help from home please check out our sister charities in the UK the Turing Trust and VolAfrica:
Ashanti ICCES Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/ashanti.icces
ICCES schools: http://www.iccesgh.com/
Turing Trust Website: http://turingtest.bavspace.org/
VolAfrica/Turing Trust Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/169757679777096/
To apply to be a volunteer please email [email protected]
This is our regional director who can answer questions you have about the programme and send you through an application form.
