TEACHING PROJECTS WITH UNDERPRIVILEGED CHILDREN IN ACCRA
AN AFRICAN EXPERIENCE!
AKWAABA, Welcome to this beautiful
country and to our range of subjects that you can teach to disadvantaged
children who will bowl you over with their charm. There is lots of the
good stuff in Ghana - lots of overwhelming hospitality, friendliness,
religions and languages. There's also lots of music, dancing, action and
socialising in Accra - and lots and lots of glorious open African
country and sunshine!
Teach English to children in schools. You
can also teach other subjects, such as Music, Sports and IT, which are
very popular with the children. You can teach for any length of time
from two weeks to three months or longer - the choice is yours.
►SUMMARY
FACTFILE
Start Dates
All year round - you choose your
start and finish dates!
Duration
2 weeks to 1 year, subject to visa
requirements
Requirements
Minimum age 17, no qualifications necessary
(just a good dose of enthusiasm!). If you're teaching English, you
must be fluent in the language.
Price
£745 for 2 weeks, ranging to £1,795 for 12 weeks.
Full Price List
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 projects are
open to all nationalities.
Unless otherwise stated, you need to be aged between 17 and 70+
PROJECT OVERVIEW The schools
that we work with are a mixture of primary and junior
secondary. You will generally be asked to help out with any age groups, although
where possible we will try to keep you to your preferred age range. You are very
likely to be in popular demand everywhere - in and out of the classroom.
Teaching the children in Ghana is very satisfying, as
it is in most African countries, because the children actually do want to learn!
We asked a volunteer in Ghana "What do you feel you gained from doing this
project?" and she
answered: "Blimey,
where do I start! Social skills, communications skills, greater initiative,
leadership skills, planning skills (for lessons and travelling at weekends),
patience, confidence, cultural knowledge to name just a few! It is impossible to
write how priceless it is to do this kind of placement and the amount of
knowledge and experience it provides"
Your teaching will be spread over about 10-16 hours
per week, to children of a range of ages 5-15. Although English is the official
language, a multitude of African tribal languages are spoken such as Ewe and Ga. Your help is very much appreciated and schools will
usually embrace the volunteers whole heartily. Before you leave, you'll be
provided with a mountain of information on just about everything to do with
Ghana and your placement, including a Teaching Guide to help you to structure
your lessons.
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.
"I am beginning to get used to the lifestyle here,
I even got a tro-tro on my own yesterday! I have tried a few of the foods here
and I'm loving the fresh fruit on the streets. I worked at the orphanage today -
I worked in the nursery bit which was an experience. Not having dealt with young
children before, I found it a challenge feeding and washing them, but they were
so sweet and put a smile on my face".
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!
SCHOOL TERMS AND HOLIDAYS: Teaching is not available during
school holidays, so if you're planning to participate in a
placement, please take the school term dates
into account when planning the timing of your project. During the school
holidays Travellers run a Summer Camp for the children to give them
something to do and a place to go that provides them with food and keeps
them off the street.
Find out more details here. On the other hand, if
a holiday falls during your proposed placement, you
could use this time to do any independent travelling
and sightseeing.
Dates for the school terms (semesters) are
given below.
1st Term approx. mid September to just before
Christmas
2nd Term approx early January to beginning of April
3rd Term Beginning of May to late July
REQUIREMENTS: You don't need any qualifications, but you should have a good
knowledge of the subject you want to teach. Self-reliance, independence and initiative are
highly appreciated and a sense of humour when the electricity fails, or
buses don't turn up, will help you to make the most of this wonderful
opportunity!
Like all our destination countries, the culture in
Ghana is different to what you're used to. For example, the people are
exceptionally friendly and helpful, with big smiles and a relaxed attitude. On
the other hand, the living standard falls short of UK or Western standards. And Ghanaian time is when someone says, "See
you at 10.a.m.," - what he really means is, "I'll see you sometime tomorrow"!
And then he may not turn up at all.
The pace of life is slower and more relaxed. This
must be borne in mind and you are naturally expected to live within local
cultural rules. But you'll quickly get involved in the daily life of the local
people and pretty soon you'll feel completely at home - Ghana has that effect on
you!
If you're a little unsure about the idea of
standing in front of a class and teaching, you can, before you leave,
enrol in our weekend TEFL courses.
(
www.tefltime.com)
to help you teach if you have no previous experience and would like to
gain a little teaching knowledge.
Anna Cotton during a maths lesson, volunteering in Ghana
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
TEACHING MUSIC IN GHANA
Volunteers are sorely needed to teach music!
Although music is extremely popular amongst the children at the schools, it has
been dropped from many schools due to lack of funding. Therefore, as
you can imagine, giving the school (and the children) free access to music
teaching is a very welcome addition to the school and frequently will be the
only access to formal music teaching that the children will get.
We have one school we work with in Accra. The
children are friendly - they have no hesitation and 'helping' you on the
keyboard or dancing to any music that's being produced.
You don't have to have qualifications - if you can
play any type of instrument, you’ll be very welcome.
You will teach music either at a primary or junior
secondary school. Although you will be mainly teaching music
,
you may also assist with other classes. You will generally be asked to help out
with any age groups, although where possible we will try to keep you to your
preferred age range. You are, in fact, very likely to be in popular demand
everywhere - in and out of the classroom.
The schools regularly embrace
Travellers' volunteers whole heartily.
Your efforts help not only the children, but also the school. You'll also derive
a lot of pleasure from teaching music to these children, because Africans (as a
rule) have music in their soul.
Before you leave, you'll be provided with a mountain of information on just
about everything to do with Ghana and your placement, including a Teaching
Guide.
TEACHING IT AND COMPUTERS IN GHANA:
Ghana's capital city has plenty of internet
cafes and IT skills are becoming more and more vital to employment in this
developing country. You may not be an IT expert, but in Western countries we
are so used to working with computers that many of us take for granted how
advanced our IT skills are.
If you have regular access to a computer you
are among a small percentage of the world's population who are incredibly
fortunate - so use this opportunity to share your skills! You will be amazed
just how much you know and can pass on to your eager students!
We work with an IT centre in a poor area of
Ghana's capital city, Accra. Regular IT lessons take place at this centre
for both local school children and adults within the wider community. As in
less advantaged countries everywhere, your help is very deeply appreciated.
The School only has about dozen very basic computers so it’s not unusual to
find 3-4 to one computer, especially when teaching the children.
You may find yourself teaching packages such
as: Word, Excel, Access, Office, Power point or Paint. Alternatively, you
may help some of your students improve their typing skills. Our volunteers
have made a tremendous positive impact in this school.
A Travellers volunteer, Oliver Blackwell,
had knowledge of web design and was able to design an excellent website with his
students (
www.mat-michael.com).
He also featured volunteer Maria Boznakova
from Slovakia. She was not comfortable about teaching English as it was her second
language, so she chose this placement instead and earned the title
"Undisputed Queen of Excel" - thank
you again, Maria, for your time and commitment.
"A big thank you for sorting everything out for
what turned out to be an awesome 5 weeks. I feel I really hit the jackpot
with the family, the computer school, and the other volunteers (and not
forgetting Aloysius!)
I was reading a few of the articles on your
website from other volunteers and one guy commented that everyone should do
at least one "volunteer experience" in a developing country. Nicely put, I
couldn’t agree more, and I will be recommending them/you to anybody who is
thinking about doing this sort of thing".
If you fancy doing something a little different from teaching English but
still want teach in area where you will be making a positive contribution,
why not Teach IT in Ghana!
Your accommodation
will vary, depending on your work location. You may live in comfortable guest
house accommodation, but you will most
likely live 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
Caroline on the left, Susannah on the right,
standing on the front veranda of their
accommodation
with Caroline’s host, Lizzie
TRAVEL:
You have the option to arrange your
own flights or we can assist you with your flight arrangements. If you would
like us to do this for you, we will liaise with you regarding available flights
and dates to suit you. All arrangements for your flight bookings/payments will
be fulfilled by Murray Rogers Travel Limited, ATOL No. 6856.
Where possible, we arrange for two or more people to travel on the
same flight and we will let you have the names and telephone numbers of other
volunteers on your flight, so that you can chat to each other or even meet up
before leaving for your placement.
You'll fly into Accra where you'll be met by our Ghana Manager, or one of his staff. From the
airport you'll be taken to your work and your accommodation and introduced to your
hosts. You'd be well advised to prepare yourself
for an almost overwhelmingly friendly welcome!
VISAS:
Visas are required and must be purchased before departure. We'll liaise with you
about your visa requirements, if any, and make the Visa process very easy.
Where possible, all flights we arrange for you have changeable return tickets because many of our
volunteers choose to extend their stay once they are in their destination
country.
Changeable return tickets enable you to do so, within the limits of your visa
and the level of your air ticket,
of course. If you choose to book your own flights, you should endeavour to get
a changeable ticket.
To read about the excellentSupport
& Backup we provide before you leave and during
your programme,
please click here.
We can also arrange your flight
dates
to give you additional time at the end of your project for travelling around and sightseeing - this is a
fascinating and wondrous country!
Suite 2A, Caravelle House, 17/19 Goring
Road, Worthing,
West Sussex, BN12 4AP, England
Tel: +44 (0)1903 502595 Fax: +44 (0)1903 708179
Email:
info@travellersworldwide.com
.
+44 01903 502595
