If you love volleyball and would
like to inspire Ghanaian children to love it too, this would be a good
project for you. You'll make your mark and have a
lot of fun in the process!
Volleyball is Ghana's second most popular
sport after football. You'll see Ghanaians play the game all over the country.
Unfortunately, not many children in Ghana
are able to get coaching or training in Volleyball. Ghanaian children generally have natural sporting ability, but they lack the
opportunity to use it and receive professional coaching. This is where you come
in. With professional Volleyball coaching from Travellers volunteers, children
will be able to harness their raw talent and put it into use, hopefully providing
them with an opportunity to go on and compete at a high level within Ghana.
You don't have to have a
great knowledge of Volleyball or the rules, but you must be an
enthusiastic person who enjoys coaching Volleyball.
We provide you with lots of free manuals, including one on how
to coach volleyball. They have all been produced by our own Sports Manager and
are excellent tools to help you on your placement.
Very few schools in Ghana
have a volleyball court or the space to put up a court, and many children don’t have
the opportunity to play. As a Travellers volunteer Volleyball coach,
you'll be doing your best to change this.
You
will be coaching at one of the few schools in Accra who are fortunate enough to have
their own volleyball facilities. Coaching takes place
during PE lessons throughout the day. The school is keen for volunteers to
help create and implement school teams and also to coach those teams after school.
The school is also enthusiastic
about having volunteers organise matches between teams within the school, and possibly
arranging tournaments between themselves and other schools.
As there is very little sporting
infrastructure for volleyball in Ghana and not much chance for children to play
competitively, we are very passionate about providing the children of Ghana the
opportunity to not only learn to play volleyball from an experienced coach but
the opportunity to compete within volleyball.
We are also keen to expand this
project to other schools in the area to give as many children the opportunity to
play volleyball as possible but this can only be achieved through volleyball
coaches coming to Ghana to expand the program and provide funding for equipment
through there donations.
Close to the volunteers
accommodation is a community Volleyball court where you can possibly do some
extra coaching to local children after school or on weekends, exposing more
children to volleyball. As the court is not often used, we feel there is the
opportunity for volunteers to help set up a social volleyball club, or run coaching clinics, which local
children could attend.
SCHOOL TERMS AND HOLIDAYS 2008: Coaching 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. 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 12th September – 14th December
2nd Term 9th January – 29th March
3rd Term 2nd May – 9th August
FREE VOLLEYBALL
COACHING MANUAL AND SUBSCRIPTION TO A COACHING WEBSITE:
As a volunteer
sports coach with Travellers you have access to a free
Volleyball coaching manual written for you specifically for your project.Travellers
have also we arranged for you
to get a year’s free subscription to a Coaching website:
www.grassrootscoaching.com. With
this membership (which normally comes with a price tag
of £39.99), you automatically become a member of the International Coaches
Association (ICA) and join a community of coaches from over 65 countries.
Although
they deal mainly with soccer, the coaching principles are the same for all
sports and will be helpful for you in teaching any sport. This
excellent resource should hopefully be able to give
you a few tips that will benefit both you and the children that you’ll be
coaching, and enable you to gain the maximum enjoyment from your placement.
One of our volunteers coaching children how to do the over arm
serve
ACCOMMODATION
Your accommodation will
vary depending on the type of placement you're doing and where you are
located. 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
When we arrange your placement, we will liaise
extensively with you regarding both the placement and your accommodation.
As always, our Local Manager will look after you well and will
always be on hand to help and offer advice.
Caroline on the left,
Susannah on the right
standing on the front verandah of their accommodation
with Caroline’s
host, Lizzie
You don’t have to have a great knowledge of the game and the rules, but you must
be an enthusiastic person who enjoys playing the game. So if you have a passion
for Volleyball then why not become a Travellers Volleyball coach and help to develop the
sport to the children in Ghana?
You don't need any qualifications on this placement, but, you will need to be
fluent in English or speak English to a good standard.
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.
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!
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!
PRICES:
To see the Prices of this project and all
our other projects in Ghana, please
click here
Prices
include
Food & accommodation while on your project,
2 T-shirts, if required
for your project
All support and backup
during your programme
Meeting you at the
nearest airport, where appropriate, but exclude international travel.
.
+44 01903 502595
