SUMMER CAMP

COME TO GHANA AND HAVE FUN WITH THE KIDS. Turn their school holidays into an enjoyable learning experience using games, hobbies and any creative activities at a Travellers Summer Camp that is free for the children. If you've got nothing planned and you have anything from a couple a weeks or longer free this summer, why not come to Ghana and have fun with the kids!
 

►SUMMARY FACTFILE
Start Dates	This project runs between approximately 1st August until 10th September every year and can be combined with another project before or after this one.
Duration	From 1 week to 4 weeks, you choose how long you'd like to participate.
Requirements	No qualifications needed, just a love of children and of fun and games!  Minimum age 17.
Price	£845 / US$1,270 for two weeks, ranging to £1,395 / US$2,095 for 4 weeks.Full Price List and other Currencies
What's included	►Accommodation ►Food ►Meeting you at the Airport ►Transfer to your accommodation ►Transport to and from your project ►Full pre-departure support ►Local in-country team support and backup ►24-hr emergency support ►Two free T-shirts.
What's not included	Flights, Insurance, Cost of Visas (if a visa is required, but we'll provide necessary documents and assistance), Return transfer to airport.
Who can do this Project?	All our projects are open to all nationalities. Unless otherwise stated, you need to be aged between 17 and 70+

PROJECT OVERVIEW
Children in Ghana have school holidays from the beginning of August until the middle of September. Unfortunately, many of the children come from poor families and they have very little in the way of resources to entertain themselves during the Summer holiday. To help families who struggle to find someone to look after the children, or can't afford anyone to care for their children while they go work, Travellers set up a free Summer Camp for the children. 

We provide equipment and materials for games, competitions and general fun stuff and we also make sure they get a meal every day (unfortunately, sometimes this is the only meal they get).

WHAT YOU'LL GAIN FROM DOING THIS PROJECT:

• An exciting, never-to-be-forgotten adventure into Africa and Ghanaian culture.

• The enormous satisfaction of helping disadvantaged children and knowing that you made a difference to them.

• New skills, more confidence, a greater understanding of a different culture, invaluable personal and professional development.

• An entry on your CV or résumé that will put you head and shoulders above most others in the job market

• And best of all ... an unforgettable experience!

WORK CONTENT:
This is a special Summer project which Travellers has set up to give the kids some something to do during the holidays that will be fun for them and won't cost them a penny. The idea is to keep them entertained and perhaps teach them some skills at the same time.

Our first Summer Camp took place in 2005 at St Matthews School and three have been a great success for all involved!  Since then, the volunteers all loved it because they got to really give hands-on attention to all the children in an informal setting. Volunteers have made comments like, "the best time of my life", "I loved every minute of it and I'm going to miss my children!" and the best one, "I'm coming back for next year's camp".

The children love the Summer Camps - they're kept entertained and have somewhere to go during school holidays when there's no one around to look after them, and they get a meal and win prizes! The prize for our volunteers is the big grins across all the kids' faces :-)

One of the obvious activities will be sports - as many varied sports as possible - plus various other children's activities, such as:

• Any ball games, like Football, Cricket, Basketball, Rounders or Netball

• Frisbee games

• Dancing - Ghanaians love to dance, so putting together a dance concert or dance competition would be fun

• Drama - Informal Drama productions is another activity that can be initiated - and all kids love play-acting!

• Music - teaching them to sing, to play an instrument and perhaps to put together a concert to be performed at the end of the holidays

• Magic tricks, juggling or circus-type activities

• Simple games like hopscotch, skipping, hula-hoops

• Arts & Crafts - here there are many options.

• Any creative activities, like face painting

• Reading from story books

• Or anything else your imagination can dream up that will amuse the children.

The kids will be learning to use English at the same time, so they'll not only have fun, they'll also benefit from the activity. These activities also benefit the children by improving their team-work skills, social interaction and building their confidence.

The Summer Camp will take place in the grounds of one of the local schools in Kwabenya and will be for children from all around the area, including other schools in the community. Kwabenya is a small town/suburb about forty minutes drive outside Accra city centre and a place where many of our teaching volunteers are based.

You may work for only a few hours a day, or you may find that you want to devote more time to the children. The school will remain open during the holidays because they are also running extra-curricular academic lessons for the children who need them.

However, during the holiday period it is likely the school will have only one member of staff present as the rest of the staff are likely to be away on holiday. For this reason you will have the opportunity to become quite involved in the structure, running and development of the camp, which will require you to work on your own initiative for a lot of the time. For this reason, being creative is a must.

You may work with large or small groups of children, so you need to be diverse and organised, but you are encouraged to utilise any skills or passions you have, whether these are playing sport, music, drama or just games.

Past volunteers made a real difference by introducing a fun and creative way for the children to express themselves and learn about new things. You’ll be rewarded by how much fun the children will have!

So if you haven't got anything planned and you're free for a couple a weeks or longer this summer, why not come to Ghana and have fun with the kids.

Our Ghana Manager and his team will look after you well. You'll get lots of advice about the do's and don’ts of Ghanaian culture, what to do and where to go.

Miss Accra Pageant - all the kids won prizes!

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Congratulations - Prize Giving!

To read a report from one of our volunteers on the Summer Camp, click here.

ACCOMMODATION

Your accommodation will vary, depending on your work location. You will either be staying in a family run hostel or with a host family. The hostel is a comfortable guest house accommodation, with 11 rooms, the owners are very friendly and they are Ghanaian so you can still experience the culture. Alternatively you may be staying with a host family. This means that you get to eat, sleep, work, socialise and generally live like a Ghanaian. Local family stays enable you to fully experience the local culture from the inside.

Many of our volunteers remain friends with their host families long after they leave Ghana and in some cases they return to the country later especially to visit their family. Sometimes members of their Ghanaian family have even gone to visit them in their home country.
 

"My family - Lizzie and Prince are lovely. The children are very sweet, and I feel extremely lucky to have been placed with them. The house is of a Western standard in most ways, and Lizzie's cooking is excellent. I feel a part of their family already."

Food will be local cuisine - again this is to enable you to fully experience living as local Ghanaians do. Read about what it's like to live in Ghana. As always, our Local Manager will look after you well and will always be on hand to help and offer advice.