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 conversational English
to children in schools. You can also teach other
subjects. Music and drama, Sports and IT, for example, are very popular with the children.
Most of our schools are based
in the small town of
Kwabenya,
which is a small town/suburb about forty minutes drive outside Accra city
centre, We also have schools in
Asylum Down,
which is is more centrally located in Accra, and in
East Legon,
close to the city.
You can teach for any length
of time from three weeks to three months or longer - the choice is
yours. You don't
need any qualifications to teach in Ghana.
SCHOOL TERMS AND HOLIDAYS 2008: 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 “brilliant” Summer Camp!
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.
(These dates are provisional and can
be subject to change
1st Term 11th September – 20th December 2007
2nd Term 8th January – 3rd April 2008
3rd Term 6th May – 24th July
If you're a little unsure about the idea
of standing in front of a class and teaching, you can,
before you leave, enroll in a
1-day
intensive open teacher training course (optional) to help you teach if you
have no previous experience and would like to gain a little
teaching knowledge.
You don't need any qualifications
to participate in a teaching placement in Ghana,
but, if you're teaching English, you do need to be fluent in the language
and it should preferably be your home language.
The schools 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. A previous volunteer in Ghana,
Paul White, is a qualified teacher and he says, "I
encourage all my teacher colleagues to take time out to do a voluntary teaching
placement - the children's enthusiasm to learn will remind them why they joined
the teaching profession in the first place!"
Paul does a voluntary project every summer - "to rejuvenate my spirit" - so far
he's also done teaching projects with Travellers in India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, and is
doing his next project in South America in 2006.)
Your teaching will be spread over 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 trotro 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”.
Anna Cotton during a maths lesson, volunteering in Ghana
Volunteer Jennifer McAlpine, teaching in Ghana
TEACHING MUSIC IN GHANA
Volunteers are desperately 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.
You'll most
likely be based in the Asylum Downs suburb of Accra, close to the centre of the
city. Here we have two schools that have some rudimentary music facilities and
instruments. The children are friendly and kind of city-confident - 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. To read more about schools
where you can teach music, please
click here,
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.
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.
One of our first
volunteers, Maria Boznakova from Slovakia, was uncomfortable teaching
English as it was her second language. She choose this placement instead and
had a wonderful time - thank you Maria for your time and commitment.
Another previous volunteer, Oliver Blackwell, had knowledge
of web design and was able to design a website with his students. You can
have a look at the website via this link - www.mat-michael.com.
“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!
ACCOMMODATION
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.
Caroline on the left, Susannah on the right,
standing on the front veranda of their
accommodation
with Caroline’s host, Lizzie
WHAT IS REQUIRED OF YOU
You don't need any qualifications on this placement, but, if you're teaching
English, you do need to be fluent in the language.
If you're teaching another subject, like Music or IT, you need to be reasonably
skilled in that subject.
Self-reliance, independence
and initiativeare 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!
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 Ltd., ATOL No. 6856. (Read more about Murray Rogers Travel Ltd.)
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.
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.
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!
VISAS:. In countries where visas are required, we'll send you all the necessary forms and
information and make the process very easy for you.
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!
.
+44 01903 502595
